Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement.[1] Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.

A feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm—"in satire, irony is militant"[2]—but parody, burlesque, exaggeration,[3] juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This "militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist wishes to attack.

Satire is nowadays found in many artistic forms of expression, including internet memes, literature, plays, commentary, television shows, and media such as lyrics.

The word satire comes from the Latin word satur and the subsequent phrase lanx satura.Satur meant "full" but the juxtaposition with lanx shifted the meaning to "miscellany or medley": the expression lanx satura literally means "a full dish of various kinds of fruits."[4]

The word satura as used by Quintilian, however, was used to denote only Roman verse satire, a strict genre that imposed hexameter form, a narrower genre than what would be later intended as satire.[4][5] Quintilian famously said that satura, that is a satire in hexameter verses, was a literary genre of wholly Roman origin (satura tota nostra est), he was aware of and commented on Greek satire, but at the time did not label it as such, although today the origin of satire is considered to be Aristophanes' Old Comedy. The first critic to use the term "satire" in the modern broader sense was Apuleius.[4]

To Quintilian, the satire was a strict literary form, but the term soon escaped from the original narrow definition. Robert Elliott writes:

As soon as a noun enters the domain of metaphor, as one modern scholar has pointed out, it clamours for extension; and satura (which had had no verbal, adverbial, or adjectival forms) was immediately broadened by appropriation from the Greek word for “satyr” (satyros) and its derivatives. The odd result is that the English “satire” comes from the Latin satura; but "satirize", "satiric", etc., are of Greek origin. By about the 4th century AD the writer of satires came to be known as satyricus; St. Jerome, for example, was called by one of his enemies 'a satirist in prose' ('satyricus scriptor in prosa'). Subsequent orthographic modifications obscured the Latin origin of the word satire: satura becomes satyra, and in England, by the 16th century, it was written 'satyre.'[1]

The word satire derives from satura, and its origin was not influenced by the Greek mythological figure of the satyr.[6] In the 17th century, philologist Isaac Casaubon was the first to dispute the etymology of satire from satyr, contrary to the belief up to that time.[7]

Laughter is not an essential component of satire;[8] in fact there are types of satire that are not meant to be "funny" at all. Conversely, not all humor, even on such topics as politics, religion or art is necessarily "satirical", even when it uses the satirical tools of irony, parody, and burlesque.

Even light-hearted satire has a serious "after-taste": the organizers of the Ig Nobel Prize describe this as "first make people laugh, and then make them think".[9]

Satire and irony in some cases have been regarded as the most effective source to understand a society, the oldest form of social study,[10] they provide the keenest insights into a group's collective psyche, reveal its deepest values and tastes, and the society's structures of power.[11][12] Some authors have regarded satire as superior to non-comic and non-artistic disciplines like history or anthropology.[10][13][14] In a prominent example from ancient Greece, philosopher Plato, when asked by a friend for a book to understand Athenian society, referred him to the plays of Aristophanes.[15][16]

Historically, satire has satisfied the popular need to debunk and ridicule the leading figures in politics, economy, religion and other prominent realms of power.[17] Satire confronts public discourse and the collective imaginary, playing as a public opinion counterweight to power (be it political, economic, religious, symbolic, or otherwise), by challenging leaders and authorities, for instance, it forces administrations to clarify, amend or establish their policies. Satire's job is to expose problems and contradictions, and it's not obligated to solve them.[18]Karl Kraus set in the history of satire a prominent example of a satirist role as confronting public discourse.[19]

Horatian satire, named for the Roman satirist Horace (65–8 BCE), playfully criticizes some social vice through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humour. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) wrote Satires to gently ridicule the dominant opinions and "philosophical beliefs of ancient Rome and Greece" (Rankin).[28] Rather than writing in harsh or accusing tones, he addressed issues with humor and clever mockery. Horatian satire follows this same pattern of "gently [ridiculing] the absurdities and follies of human beings" (Drury).[29]
It directs wit, exaggeration, and self-deprecating humour toward what it identifies as folly, rather than evil. Horatian satire's sympathetic tone is common in modern society.[30]
A Horatian satirist's goal is to heal the situation with smiles, rather than by anger. Horatian satire is a gentle reminder to take life less seriously and evokes a wry smile.[29] A Horatian satirist makes fun of general human folly rather than engaging in specific or personal attacks. Shamekia Thomas suggests, "In a work using Horatian satire, readers often laugh at the characters in the story who are the subject of mockery as well as themselves and society for behaving in those ways." Alexander Pope has been established as an author whose satire "heals with morals what it hurts with wit" (Green).[31] Alexander Pope—and Horatian satire—attempt to teach.

Juvenalian satire, named for the writings of the Roman satirist Juvenal (late first century – early second century AD), is more contemptuous and abrasive than the Horatian. Juvenal disagreed with the opinions of the public figures and institutions of the Republic and actively attacked them through his literature. "He utilized the satirical tools of exaggeration and parody to make his targets appear monstrous and incompetent" (Podzemny).[32] Juvenal satire follows this same pattern of abrasively ridiculing societal structures. Juvenal also, unlike Horace, attacked public officials and governmental organizations through his satires, regarding their opinions not just as wrong, but as evil.

Following in this tradition, Juvenalian satire addresses perceived social evil through scorn, outrage, and savage ridicule. This form is often pessimistic, characterized by the use of irony, sarcasm, moral indignation and personal invective, with less emphasis on humor. Strongly polarized political satire can often be classified as Juvenalian.
A Juvenal satirist's goal is generally to provoke some sort of political or societal change because he sees his opponent or object as evil or harmful.[33] A Juvenal satirist mocks "societal structure, power, and civilization" (Thomas)[34] by exaggerating the words or position of his opponent in order to jeopardize their opponent's reputation and/or power. Jonathan Swift has been established as an author who "borrowed heavily from Juvenal's techniques in [his critique] of contemporary English society" (Podzemny).[32]

Cooke, Ebenezer, The Sot-Weed Factor; or, A Voyage to Maryland,—a satire, in which is described the laws, government, courts, and constitutions of the country, and also the buildings, feasts, frolics, entertainments, and drunken humors of the inhabitants in that part of America.

In the history of theatre there has always been a conflict between engagement and disengagement on politics and relevant issue, between satire and grotesque on one side, and jest with teasing on the other.[35]Max Eastman defined the spectrum of satire in terms of "degrees of biting", as ranging from satire proper at the hot-end, and "kidding" at the violet-end; Eastman adopted the term kidding to denote what is just satirical in form, but is not really firing at the target.[36]Nobel laureate satirical playwright Dario Fo pointed out the difference between satire and teasing (sfottò).[37] Teasing is the reactionary side of the comic; it limits itself to a shallow parody of physical appearance. The side-effect of teasing is that it humanizes and draws sympathy for the powerful individual towards which it is directed. Satire instead uses the comic to go against power and its oppressions, has a subversive character, and a moral dimension which draws judgement against its targets.[38][39][40][41] Fo formulated an operational criterion to tell real satire from sfottò, saying that real satire arouses an outraged and violent reaction, and that the more they try to stop you, the better is the job you are doing.[42] Fo contends that, historically, people in positions of power have welcomed and encouraged good-humoured buffoonery, while modern day people in positions of power have tried to censor, ostracize and repress satire.[35][38]

Teasing (sfottò) is an ancient form of simple buffoonery, a form of comedy without satire's subversive edge. Teasing includes light and affectionate parody, good-humoured mockery, simple one-dimensional poking fun, and benign spoofs. Teasing typically consists of an impersonation of someone monkeying around with his exterior attributes, tics, physical blemishes, voice and mannerisms, quirks, way of dressing and walking, and/or the phrases he typically repeats. By contrast, teasing never touches on the core issue, never makes a serious criticism judging the target with irony; it never harms the target's conduct, ideology and position of power; it never undermines the perception of his morality and cultural dimension.[38][40]Sfottò directed towards a powerful individual makes him appear more human and draws sympathy towards him.[43]Hermann Göring propagated jests and jokes against himself, with the aim of humanizing his image.[44][45]

Another classification by topics is the distinction between political satire, religious satire and satire of manners.[62] Political satire is sometimes called topical satire, satire of manners is sometimes called satire of everyday life, and religious satire is sometimes called philosophical satire. Comedy of manners, sometimes also called satire of manners, criticizes mode of life of common people; political satire aims at behavior, manners of politicians, and vices of political systems. Historically, comedy of manners, which first appeared in British theater in 1620, has uncritically accepted the social code of the upper classes.[63] Comedy in general accepts the rules of the social game, while satire subverts them.[64]

One of the earliest examples of what we might call satire, The Satire of the Trades,[67] is in Egyptian writing from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, the text's apparent readers are students, tired of studying. It argues that their lot as scribes is useful, and their lot far superior to that of the ordinary man. Scholars such as Helck[68] think that the context was meant to be serious.

The Papyrus Anastasi I[69] (late 2nd millennium BC) contains a satirical letter which first praises the virtues of its recipient, but then mocks the reader's meagre knowledge and achievements.

The Greeks had no word for what later would be called "satire", although the terms cynicism and parody were used. Modern critics call the Greek playwrightAristophanes one of the best known early satirists: his plays are known for their critical political and societal commentary,[70] particularly for the political satire by which he criticized the powerful Cleon (as in The Knights). He is also notable for the persecution he underwent.[70][71][72][73] Aristophanes' plays turned upon images of filth and disease,[74] his bawdy style was adopted by Greek dramatist-comedian Menander. His early play Drunkenness contains an attack on the politician Callimedon.

The oldest form of satire still in use is the Menippean satire by Menippus of Gadara, his own writings are lost. Examples from his admirers and imitators mix seriousness and mockery in dialogues and present parodies before a background of diatribe, as in the case of Aristophanes plays, menippean satire turned upon images of filth and disease.[74]

The first Roman to discuss satire critically was Quintilian, who invented the term to describe the writings of Gaius Lucilius, the two most prominent and influential ancient Roman satirists are Horace and Juvenal, who wrote during the early days of the Roman Empire. Other important satirists in ancient Latin are Gaius Lucilius and Persius. Satire in their work is much wider than in the modern sense of the word, including fantastic and highly coloured humorous writing with little or no real mocking intent. When Horace criticized Augustus, he used veiled ironic terms; in contrast, Pliny reports that the 6th century BC poet Hipponax wrote satirae that were so cruel that the offended hanged themselves.[75]

In the 2nd century AD, Lucian wrote True History, a book satirizing the clearly unrealistic travelogues/adventures written by Ctesias, Iambulus, and Homer. He states that he was surprised they expected people to believe their lies, and stating that he, like they, has no actual knowledge or experience, but shall now tell lies as if he did, he goes on to describe a far more obviously extreme and unrealistic tale, involving interplanetary exploration, war among alien life forms, and life inside a 200 mile long whale back in the terrestrial ocean, all intended to make obvious the fallacies of books like Indica and The Odyssey.

Medieval Arabic poetry included the satiric genre hija. Satire was introduced into Arabic prose literature by the Afro-Arab author Al-Jahiz in the 9th century. While dealing with serious topics in what are now known as anthropology, sociology and psychology, he introduced a satirical approach, "based on the premise that, however serious the subject under review, it could be made more interesting and thus achieve greater effect, if only one leavened the lump of solemnity by the insertion of a few amusing anecdotes or by the throwing out of some witty or paradoxical observations. He was well aware that, in treating of new themes in his prose works, he would have to employ a vocabulary of a nature more familiar in hija, satirical poetry."[76] For example, in one of his zoological works, he satirized the preference for longer human penis size, writing: "If the length of the penis were a sign of honor, then the mule would belong to the (honorable tribe of) Quraysh". Another satirical story based on this preference was an Arabian Nights tale called "Ali with the Large Member".[77]

In the 10th century, the writer Tha'alibi recorded satirical poetry written by the Arabic poets As-Salami and Abu Dulaf, with As-Salami praising Abu Dulaf's wide breadth of knowledge and then mocking his ability in all these subjects, and with Abu Dulaf responding back and satirizing As-Salami in return.[78] An example of Arabic political satire included another 10th-century poet Jarir satirizing Farazdaq as "a transgressor of the Sharia" and later Arabic poets in turn using the term "Farazdaq-like" as a form of political satire.[79]

Ubayd Zakani introduced satire in Persian literature during the 14th century. His work is noted for its satire and obscene verses, often political or bawdy, and often cited in debates involving homosexual practices, he wrote the Resaleh-ye Delgosha, as well as Akhlaq al-Ashraf ("Ethics of the Aristocracy") and the famous humorous fable Masnavi Mush-O-Gorbeh (Mouse and Cat), which was a political satire. His non-satirical serious classical verses have also been regarded as very well written, in league with the other great works of Persian literature. Between 1905 and 1911, Bibi Khatoon Astarabadi and other Iranian writers wrote notable satires.

Direct social commentary via satire returned with a vengeance in the 16th century, when farcical texts such as the works of François Rabelais tackled more serious issues (and incurred the wrath of the crown as a result).

The Elizabethan (i.e. 16th-century English) writers thought of satire as related to the notoriously rude, coarse and sharp satyr play. Elizabethan "satire" (typically in pamphlet form) therefore contains more straightforward abuse than subtle irony, the French HuguenotIsaac Casaubon pointed out in 1605 that satire in the Roman fashion was something altogether more civilised. Casaubon discovered and published Quintilian's writing and presented the original meaning of the term (satira, not satyr), and the sense of wittiness (reflecting the "dishfull of fruits") became more important again. 17th-century English satire once again aimed at the "amendment of vices" (Dryden).

In the 1590s a new wave of verse satire broke with the publication of Hall's Virgidemiarum, six books of verse satires targeting everything from literary fads to corrupt noblemen, although Donne had already circulated satires in manuscript, Hall's was the first real attempt in English at verse satire on the Juvenalian model.[81][page needed] The success of his work combined with a national mood of disillusion in the last years of Elizabeth's reign triggered an avalanche of satire – much of it less conscious of classical models than Hall's — until the fashion was brought to an abrupt stop by censorship.[a]

The Age of Enlightenment, an intellectual movement in the 17th and 18th century advocating rationality, produced a great revival of satire in Britain, this was fuelled by the rise of partisan politics, with the formalisation of the Tory and Whig parties — and also, in 1714, by the formation of the Scriblerus Club, which included Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, John Gay, John Arbuthnot, Robert Harley, Thomas Parnell, and Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. This club included several of the notable satirists of early 18th century Britain, they focused their attention on Martinus Scriblerus, "an invented learned fool... whose work they attributed all that was tedious, narrow-minded, and pedantic in contemporary scholarship".[83] In their hands astute and biting satire of institutions and individuals became a popular weapon, the turn to the 18th century was characterized by a switch from Horatian, soft, pseudo-satire, to biting "juvenal" satire.[84]

Jonathan Swift was one of the greatest of Anglo-Irish satirists, and one of the first to practise modern journalistic satire. For instance, In his A Modest Proposal Swift suggests that Irish peasants be encouraged to sell their own children as food for the rich, as a solution to the "problem" of poverty, his purpose is of course to attack indifference to the plight of the desperately poor. In his book Gulliver's Travels he writes about the flaws in human society in general and English society in particular. John Dryden wrote an influential essay entitled "A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire"[85] that helped fix the definition of satire in the literary world. His satirical Mac Flecknoe was written in response to a rivalry with Thomas Shadwell and eventually inspired Alexander Pope to write his satirical The Rape of the Lock. Other satirical works by Pope include the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot.

Alexander Pope b. May 21, 1688 was a satirist known for his Horatian satirist style and translation of the Illiad. Famous throughout and after the long 18th century, Pope died in 1744.[86] Pope, in his The Rape of the Lock, is delicately chiding society in a sly but polished voice by holding up a mirror to the follies and vanities of the upper class. Pope does not actively attack the self-important pomp of the British aristocracy, but rather presents it in such a way that gives the reader a new perspective from which to easily view the actions in the story as foolish and ridiculous. A mockery of the upper class, more delicate and lyrical than brutal, Pope nonetheless is able to effectively illuminate the moral degradation of society to the public. The Rape of the Lock assimilates the masterful qualities of a heroic epic, such as the Iliad, which Pope was translating at the time of writing The Rape of the Lock. However, Pope applied these qualities satirically to a seemingly petty egotistical elitist quarrel to prove his point wryly.[87]

The pictorial satire of William Hogarth is a precursor to the development of political cartoons in 18th-century England,[88] the medium developed under the direction of its greatest exponent, James Gillray from London.[89] With his satirical works calling the king (George III), prime ministers and generals (especially Napoleon) to account, Gillray's wit and keen sense of the ridiculous made him the pre-eminent cartoonist of the era.[89]

Ebenezer Cooke (1665–1732), author of "The Sot-Weed Factor" (1708), was among the first American colonialists to write literary satire. Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) and others followed, using satire to shape an emerging nation's culture through its sense of the ridiculous.

Several satiric papers competed for the public's attention in the Victorian era (1837–1901) and Edwardian period, such as Punch (1841) and Fun (1861).

Perhaps the most enduring examples of Victorian satire, however, are to be found in the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan; in fact, in The Yeomen of the Guard, a jester is given lines that paint a very neat picture of the method and purpose of the satirist, and might almost be taken as a statement of Gilbert's own intent:

"I can set a braggart quailing with a quip,

The upstart I can wither with a whim;

He may wear a merry laugh upon his lip,

But his laughter has an echo that is grim!"

Novelists such as Charles Dickens often used passages of satiric writing in their treatment of social issues.

In the same period, in the United States, Mark Twain (1835–1910) was a great American satirist: his novel Huckleberry Finn (1884) is set in the antebellum South, where the moral values Twain wishes to promote are completely turned on their heads. His hero, Huck, is a rather simple but goodhearted lad who is ashamed of the "sinful temptation" that leads him to help a runaway slave; in fact his conscience, warped by the distorted moral world he has grown up in, often bothers him most when he is at his best. Ironically, he is prepared to do good, believing it to be wrong.

Contemporary popular usage of the term "satire" is often very imprecise. While satire often uses caricature and parody, by no means are all uses of these or other humorous devices, satiric. Refer to the careful definition of satire that heads this article.

Stephen Colbert’s television program, The Colbert Report (2005–14), is instructive in the methods of contemporary American satire. Colbert's character is an opinionated and self-righteous commentator who, in his TV interviews, interrupts people, points and wags his finger at them, and "unwittingly" uses a number of logical fallacies. In doing so, he demonstrates the principle of modern American political satire: the ridicule of the actions of politicians and other public figures by taking all their statements and purported beliefs to their furthest (supposedly) logical conclusion, thus revealing their perceived hypocrisy or absurdity.

The American sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live is also known for its satirical impressions and parodies of prominent persons and politicians, among some of the most notable, their parodies of U.S. political figures Hillary Clinton[98] and of Sarah Palin.[99]

In the United Kingdom, a popular modern satirist is Sir Terry Pratchett, author of the internationally best-selling Discworld book series. One of the most well-known and controversial British satirists is Chris Morris, co-writer and director of Four Lions.

In Canada, satire has become an important part of the comedy scene. Stephen Leacock was one of the best known early Canadian satirists, and in the early 20th century, he achieved fame by targeting the attitudes of small town life. In more recent years, Canada has had several prominent satirical television series and radio shows. Some, including CODCO, The Royal Canadian Air Farce, This Is That, and This Hour Has 22 Minutes deal directly with current news stories and political figures, while others, like History Bites present contemporary social satire in the context of events and figures in history. The Canadian organization Canada News Network provides commentary on contemporary news events that are primarily Canadian in nature. Canadian songwriter Nancy White uses music as the vehicle for her satire, and her comic folk songs are regularly played on CBC Radio.

Cartoonists often use satire as well as straight humour. Al Capp's satirical comic stripLi'l Abner was censored in September 1947. The controversy, as reported in Time, centred on Capp's portrayal of the US Senate. Said Edward Leech of Scripps-Howard, "We don't think it is good editing or sound citizenship to picture the Senate as an assemblage of freaks and crooks... boobs and undesirables."[102]Walt Kelly's Pogo was likewise censored in 1952 over his overt satire of Senator Joe McCarthy, caricatured in his comic strip as "Simple J. Malarky". Garry Trudeau, whose comic stripDoonesbury focuses on satire of the political system, and provides a trademark cynical view on national events. Trudeau exemplifies humour mixed with criticism, for example, the character Mark Slackmeyer lamented that because he was not legally married to his partner, he was deprived of the "exquisite agony" of experiencing a nasty and painful divorce like heterosexuals. This, of course, satirized the claim that gay unions would denigrate the sanctity of heterosexual marriage.

Like some literary predecessors, many recent television satires contain strong elements of parody and caricature; for instance, the popular animated series The Simpsons and South Park both parody modern family and social life by taking their assumptions to the extreme; both have led to the creation of similar series. As well as the purely humorous effect of this sort of thing, they often strongly criticise various phenomena in politics, economic life, religion and many other aspects of society, and thus qualify as satirical. Due to their animated nature, these shows can easily use images of public figures and generally have greater freedom to do so than conventional shows using live actors.

In an interview with Wikinews, Sean Mills, President of The Onion, said angry letters about their news parody always carried the same message. "It’s whatever affects that person", said Mills. "So it’s like, 'I love it when you make a joke about murder or rape, but if you talk about cancer, well my brother has cancer and that’s not funny to me.' Or someone else can say, 'Cancer’s hilarious, but don’t talk about rape because my cousin got raped.' Those are rather extreme examples, but if it affects somebody personally, they tend to be more sensitive about it."[109]

Zhou Libo, a comedian from Shanghai, is the most popular satirist in China. His humour has interested middle-class people and has sold out shows ever since his rise to fame.

Literary satire is usually written out of earlier satiric works, reprising previous conventions, commonplaces, stance, situations and tones of voice.[110]Exaggeration is one of the most common satirical techniques.[3] Contrarily diminution is also a satirical technique.

For its nature and social role, satire has enjoyed in many societies a special freedom license to mock prominent individuals and institutions;[20] in Germany,[111] and Italy[17][112] satire is protected by the constitution.

Since satire belongs to the realm of art and artistic expression, it benefits from broader lawfulness limits than mere freedom of information of journalistic kind;[112] in some countries a specific "right to satire" is recognized and its limits go beyond the "right to report" of journalism and even the "right to criticize."[112] Satire benefits not only of the protection to freedom of speech, but also to that to culture, and that to scientific and artistic production.[17][112]

Descriptions of satire's biting effect on its target include 'venomous', 'cutting', 'stinging',[113] vitriol, because satire often combines anger and humor, as well as the fact that it addresses and calls into question many controversial issues, it can be profoundly disturbing.

Common uncomprehending responses to satire include revulsion (accusations of poor taste, or that "it's just not funny" for instance) and the idea that the satirist actually does support the ideas, policies, or people he is attacking, for instance, at the time of its publication, many people misunderstood Swift’s purpose in A Modest Proposal, assuming it to be a serious recommendation of economically motivated cannibalism.

Some critics of Mark Twain see Huckleberry Finn as racist and offensive, missing the point that its author clearly intended it to be satire (racism being in fact only one of a number of Mark Twain's known concerns attacked in Huckleberry Finn).[115][116] This same misconception was suffered by the main character of the 1960s British television comedy satire Till Death Us Do Part, the character of Alf Garnett (played by Warren Mitchell) was created to poke fun at the kind of narrow-minded, racist, little Englander that Garnett represented. Instead, his character became a sort of anti-hero to people who actually agreed with his views. (The same situation occurred with Archie Bunker in American TV show All in the Family, a character derived directly from Garnett.)

The Australian satirical television comedy show The Chaser's War on Everything has suffered repeated attacks based on various perceived interpretations of the "target" of its attacks, the "Make a Realistic Wish Foundation" sketch (June 2009), which attacked in classical satiric fashion the heartlessness of people who are reluctant to donate to charities, was widely interpreted as an attack on the Make a Wish Foundation, or even the terminally ill children helped by that organisation. Prime Minister of the time Kevin Rudd stated that The Chaser team "should hang their heads in shame". He went on to say that "I didn't see that but it's been described to me. ...But having a go at kids with a terminal illness is really beyond the pale, absolutely beyond the pale."[117] Television station management suspended the show for two weeks and reduced the third season to eight episodes.

The romantic prejudice against satire is the belief spread by the romantic movement that satire is something unworthy of serious attention; this prejudice has held considerable influence to this day.[118] Such prejudice extends to humor and everything that arouses laughter, which are often underestimated as frivolous and unworthy of serious study,[119] for instance, humor is generally neglected as a topic of anthropological research and teaching.[120]

Because satire criticises in an ironic, essentially indirect way, it frequently escapes censorship in a way more direct criticism might not. Periodically, however, it runs into serious opposition, and people in power who perceive themselves as attacked attempt to censor it or prosecute its practitioners; in a classic example, Aristophanes was persecuted by the demagogueCleon.

The motives for the ban are obscure, particularly since some of the books banned had been licensed by the same authorities less than a year earlier. Various scholars have argued that the target was obscenity, libel, or sedition, it seems likely that lingering anxiety about the Martin Marprelate controversy, in which the bishops themselves had employed satirists, played a role; both Thomas Nashe and Gabriel Harvey, two of the key figures in that controversy, suffered a complete ban on all their works. In the event, though, the ban was little enforced, even by the licensing authority itself.

In 2008, popular South African cartoonist and satirist Jonathan Shapiro (who is published under the pen name Zapiro) came under fire for depicting then-president of the ANCJacob Zuma in the act of undressing in preparation for the implied rape of 'Lady Justice' which is held down by Zuma loyalists.[122] The cartoon was drawn in response to Zuma's efforts to duck corruption charges, and the controversy was heightened by the fact that Zuma was himself acquitted of rape in May 2006; in February 2009, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, viewed by some opposition parties as the mouthpiece of the governing ANC,[123] shelved a satirical TV show created by Shapiro,[124] and in May 2009 the broadcaster pulled a documentary about political satire (featuring Shapiro among others) for the second time, hours before scheduled broadcast.[125]Apartheid South Africa also had a long history of censorship.

On December 29, 2009, Samsung sued Mike Breen, and the Korea Times for $1 million, claiming criminal defamation over a satirical column published on Christmas Day, 2009.[126][127]

On April 29, 2015, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) requested Kent Police investigate the BBC, claiming that comments made about Party leader Nigel Farage by a panelist on the comedy show Have I Got News For You might hinder his chances of success in the general election (which would take place a week later), and claimed the BBC breached the Representation of the People Act.[128] Kent Police rebuffed the request to open an investigation, and the BBC released a statement, "Britain has a proud tradition of satire, and everyone knows that the contributors on Have I Got News for You regularly make jokes at the expense of politicians of all parties."[128]

The 1784 presaging of modern daylight saving time, later actually proposed in 1907. While an American envoy to France, Benjamin Franklin anonymously published a letter in 1784 suggesting that Parisians economise on candles by arising earlier to use morning sunlight.[131]

The second episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, which debuted in 1969, featured a skit entitled "The Mouse Problem" (meant to satirize contemporary media exposés on homosexuality), which depicted a cultural phenomenon eerily similar to modern furry fandom (which did not become widespread until the 1980s, over a decade after the skit was first aired).

The comedy film Americathon, released in 1979 and set in the United States of 1998, predicted a number of trends and events that would eventually unfold in the near future, including an American debt crisis, Chinese capitalism, the fall of the Soviet Union, terrorism aimed at the civilian population, a presidential sex scandal, and the popularity of reality shows.

In January 2001, a satirical news article in The Onion, entitled "Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity Is Finally Over"[132] had newly elected President George Bush vowing to "develop new and expensive weapons technologies" and to "engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years." Furthermore, he would "bring back economic stagnation by implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession." This prophesies the Iraq War and to the Bush tax cuts.

In 1975, the first episode of Saturday Night Live included an ad for a triple blade razor called the Triple-Trac; in 2001, Gillette introduced the Mach3. In 2004, The Onion satirized Schick and Gillette's marketing of ever-increasingly multi-blade razors with a mock article proclaiming Gillette will now introduce a five-blade razor;[133] in 2006, Gillette released the Gillette Fusion, a five-blade razor.

After the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, The Onion ran an article with the headline "U.S. Soothes Upset Netanyahu With Shipment Of Ballistic Missiles." Sure enough, reports broke the next day of the Obama administration offering military upgrades to Israel in the wake of the deal.[134]

^The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, the censors of the press, issued Orders to the Stationers' Company on June 1 and 4, 1599, prohibiting the further printing of satires — the so-called 'Bishop's Ban'.[82][page needed]

^Ullman, BL (1913), "Satura and Satire", Classical Philology, 8 (2), JSTOR262450, doi:10.1086/359771, The Renaissance confusion of the two origins encouraged a satire more aggressive than that of its Roman forebearers

^ abRosenberg, Harold (1960), "Community, Values, Comedy", Commentary, The American Jewish Committee, 30: 155, the oldest form of social study is comedy... If the comedian, from Aristophanes to Joyce, does not solve sociology's problem of "the participant observer", he does demonstrate his objectivity by capturing behavior in its most intimate aspects yet in its widest typicality. Comic irony sets whole cultures side by side in a multiple exposure (e.g., Don Quixote, Ulysses), causing valuation to spring out of the recital of facts alone, in contrast to the hidden editorializing of tongue-in-cheek ideologists.

^Nash, Roderick Frazier (1970), "21. The New Humor", The Call of the Wild: 1900–1916, p. 203, Humor is one of the best indicators of popular thought. To ask what strikes a period as funny is to probe its deepest values and tastes.

^Babcock, Barbara A (1984), "Arrange Me Into Disorder: Fragments and Reflections on Ritual Clowning", in MacAloon, Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle. Also collected as Babcock, Barbara A Grimes (1996), Ronald, L, ed., Readings in ritual studies, p. 5, Harold Rosenberg has asserted that sociology needs to bring comedy into the foreground, including "an awareness of the comedy of sociology with its disguises", and, like Burke and Duncan, he has argued that comedy provides "the radical effect of self- knowledge which the anthropological bias excludes.

^Coppola, Jo (1958), The Realist (1), Good comedy is social criticism—although you might find that hard to believe if all you ever saw were some of the so-called clowns of videoland.... Comedy is dying today because criticism is on its deathbed... because telecasters, frightened by the threats and pressure of sponsors, blacklists and viewers, helped introduce conformity to this age... In such a climate, comedy cannot flourish, for comedy is, after all, a look at ourselves, not as we pretend to be when we look in the mirror of our imagination, but as we really are. Look at the comedy of any age and you will know volumes about that period and its people which neither historian nor anthropologist can tell you.Missing or empty |title= (help)

a critical public discourse (...) Satire rose the daunting question of what role public opinion would play in government. (...) satirists criticized government activities, exposed ambiguities, and forced administrators to clarify or establish policies. Not surprisingly, heated public controversy surrounded satiric commentary, resulting in an outright ban on political satire in 1835 (...) Government officials cracked down on their humorous public criticism that challenged state authority through both its form and content. Satire had been a political resource in France for a long time, but the anxious political context of the July Monarchy had unlocked its political power.

Satire also taught lessons in democracy. It fit into the July Monarchy's tense political context as a voice in favor of public political debate. Satiric expression took place in the public sphere and spoke from a position of public opinion-that is, from a position of the nations expressing a political voice and making claims on its government representatives and leadership. Beyond mere entertainment, satire's humor appealed to and exercised public opinion, drawing audiences into new practices of representative government.

A surprising variety of societies have allowed certain persons the freedom to mock other individuals and social institutions in rituals. From the earliest times the same freedom has been claimed by and granted to social groups at certain times of the year, as can be seen in such festivals as the Saturnalia, the Feast of Fools, Carnival, and similar folk festivals in India, nineteenth-century Newfoundland, and the ancient Mediterranean world.

^Morson, Gary Saul (1988), Boundaries of Genre, p. 114, second, that parodies can be, as Bakhtin observes, "shallow" as well as "deep" (Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics, 160), which is to say, directed at superficial as well as fundamental faults of the original. [...] the distinction between shallow and deep [...] [is] helpful in understanding the complex ways in which parodies are used. For instance, shallow parody is sometimes used to pay an author an indirect compliment, the opposite of damning with faint praise, this parody with faint criticism may be designed to show that no more fundamental criticism could be made.

...religion, politics, and sexuality are the primary stuff of literary satire. Among these sacret targets, matters costive and defecatory play an important part. ... from the earliest times, satirists have utilized scatological and bathroom humor. Aristophanes, always livid and nearly scandalous in his religious, political, and sexual references...

The most pressing of the problems that face us when we close the book or leave the theatre are ultimately political ones; and so politics is the pre-eminent topic of satire. ...to some degree public affairs vex every man, if he pays taxes, does military service or even objects to the way his neighbour is behaving. There is no escape from politics where more than a dozen people are living together.
There is an essential connection between satire and politics in the widest sense: satire is not only the commonest form of political literature, but, insofar as it tries to influence public behaviours, it is the most political part of all literature.

It is this fear of what the dead in their uncontrollable power might cause which has brought forth apotropaic rites, protective rites against the dead. (...) One of these popular rites was the funeral rite of sin-eating, performed by a sin-eater, a man or woman. Through accepting the food and drink provided, he took upon himself the sins of the departed.

^Apte, Mahadev L (1985), "Introduction", Humor and laughter: an anthropological approach, p. 23, The general neglect of humor as a topic of anthropological research is reflected in teaching practice. Most introductory textbooks do not even list humor as a significant characteristic of cultural systems together with kinship, social roles, behavioral patterns, religion, language, economic transactions, political institutions, values, and material culture.

^Arber, Edward, ed. (1875–94), A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554–1640, III, London, p. 677

^Franklin, Benjamin (April 26, 1784). "Aux auteurs du Journal". Journal de Paris (in French) (117). Wrote anonymously. Its first publication was in the journal's "Économie" section. An Economical Project (revised English version ed.), retrieved May 26, 2007 has a title that is not Franklin's; see A.O. Aldridge (1956). "Franklin's essay on daylight saving". American Literature. American Literature. 28 (1): 23–29. JSTOR2922719. doi:10.2307/2922719.

Satyr
–
In Greek mythology, a satyr is one of a troop of ithyphallic male companions of Dionysus with goat-like features and often permanent erection. Early artistic representations sometimes include horse-like legs, but in 6th-century BC black-figure pottery human legs are the most common, in Roman Mythology there is a concept similar to satyrs, with goat

Punch (magazine)
–
Punch, or The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, after the 1940s, when its circulation peaked, it went into a long decline, closing in 1992. It was revived in 1996, but closed again in 20

2.
Cover of the first Punch, or The London Charivari, depicts Punch hanging a caricatured Devil, 1841 (see gallery below for enlarged detail)

3.
Editorial meeting of Punch magazine in the late 19th century

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently

Literature
–
Literature, in its broadest sense, is any single body of written works. Its Latin root literatura/litteratura was used to refer to all written accounts, developments in print technology have allowed an evergrowing distribution and proliferation of written works, culminating in electronic literature. There have been attempts to define literature. Si

1.
The Classic of Rites (Chinese: 禮 記; pinyin: Lǐjì), an ancient Chinese text. Certain definitions of literature have taken it to include all written work.

Novel
–
A novel is any relatively long piece of written narrative fiction, normally in prose, and typically published as a book. The genre has also described as possessing, a continuous. This view sees the novels origins in Classical Greece and Rome, medieval, early modern romance, the latter, an Italian word used to describe short stories, supplied the pr

Poetry
–
Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotles Poetics, focused on th

Literary genre
–
A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by technique, tone, content. The distinctions between genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined, often with subgroups, the most general genres in literature are epic, tragedy, comedy, and creative nonfiction. They can all be in the form of prose or poetry,

Comedy
–
In a modern sense, comedy refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, and stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece, in the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by th

1.
Thalia, muse of comedy, holding a comic mask - detail of “Muses Sarcophagus”, the nine Muses and their attributes; marble, early second century AD, Via Ostiense - Louvre

Epic poetry
–
An epic poem, epic, epos, or epopee is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Milman Parry and Albert Lord have argued that the Homeric epics and these works form the basis of the epic genre in Western literature. Nearly all Western epic sel

3.
Statue of Iranian poet Ferdowsi in Rome, Italy. Ferdowsi's national epic Shahnameh played an important role in revival of Iranian patriotism and the Persian language after both were systematically suppressed by the Arab occupation of Iran

Literary nonsense
–
Literary nonsense is a broad categorization of literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or logical reasoning. Even though the most well-known form of nonsense is nonsense verse. The effect of nonsense is often caused by an excess of meaning and its humor is derived f

Lyric poetry
–
Lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, the lyric, the term owes its importance in literary theory to the division developed by Aristotle between three broad categories of poetry, lyrical, dramatic and epic.

Mythopoeia
–
Mythopoeia is a narrative genre in modern literature and film where a fictional or artificial mythology is created by the writer of prose or other fiction. This meaning of the word mythopoeia follows its use by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s, the authors in this genre integrate traditional mythological themes and archetypes into fiction. Mythopoeia

Chivalric romance
–
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric or burlesque intent. Still, the image of medieval is more influenced by the romanc

Tragedy
–
Tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences. In the wake of Aristotles Poetics, tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions, in the modern era, tragedy has also been defined against drama, melodrama, the tragicomic, and epic theatre. Drama, in the sense, cuts across the tr

3.
Scene from the tragedy Iphigenia in Tauris by Euripides. Roman fresco in Pompeii.

Tragicomedy
–
Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in literature, the term can variously describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious play with a happy ending. There is no formal definition of tragicomedy from the classical age. It appear

Performance
–
A performance, in the performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers present one or more works of art to an audience. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand, the means of expressing appreciation can vary by culture. Chinese performers will clap with the audience at the end of a perform

Play (theatre)
–
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Plays are performed at a variety of levels, from Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater, to Community theatre, there are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had

Book
–
A book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other materials, fastened together to hinge at one side, with text and/or images printed in ink. A single sheet within a book is a leaf, and each side of a leaf is a page, a set of text-filled or illustrated pages produced in electronic format for readin

History of literature
–
Some recorded materials, such as compilations of data are not considered literature, and this article relates only to the evolution of the works defined above. Literature and writing, though connected, are not synonymous, scholars have often disagreed concerning when written record-keeping became more like literature than anything else, the definit

Sociology of literature
–
The sociology of literature is a subfield of the sociology of culture. It studies the production of literature and its social implications. A notable example is Pierre Bourdieus 1992 Les Règles de LArt, Genèse et Structure du Champ Littéraire, translated by Susan Emanuel as Rules of Art, Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field. None of the fath

Performing arts
–
Performing arts are a form of art in which artists use their voices and/or their bodies, often in relation to other objects, to convey artistic expression. It is different from visual arts, which is when artists use paint/canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects, performing arts include several disciplines, each performe

Ballet
–
Ballet /ˈbæleɪ/ is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own based on French terminology. It has been influential and has defined the foundational t

List of circus skills
–
Circus skills are a group of pursuits that have been performed as entertainment in circus, sideshow, busking, or variety/vaudeville/music hall shows. Most circus skills are still being performed today, many are also practiced by non-performers as a hobby. Circus schools and instructors use various systems of categorization to group circus skills by

Clown
–
Clowns are comic performers who employ slapstick or similar types of physical comedy, often in a mime style. Clowns have a tradition with significant variations in costume and performance. The most recognisable modern clown character is the Auguste or red clown type, with outlandish costumes featuring distinctive makeup, colourful wigs, exaggerated

1.
Chuchín (José de Jesus Medrano), a famous Mexican circus clown from the late 1960s to 1984

Dance
–
Dance is a performance art form consisting of purposefully selected sequences of human movement. This movement has aesthetic and symbolic value, and is acknowledged as dance by performers and observers within a particular culture, Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements, or by its historical period

Magic (illusion)
–
Magic is one of the oldest performing arts in the world in which audiences are entertained by staged tricks or illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means. These feats are called magic tricks, effects, or illusions, the term magic etymologically derives from the Greek word mageia. In ancient times, Greeks and Persian

1.
The Conjurer, 1475-1480, by Hieronymus Bosch or his workshop. Notice how the man in the back row steals another man's purse while applying misdirection by looking at the sky. The artist even misdirects us from the thief by drawing us to the magician.

Mime artist
–
A mime or mime artist is a person who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as a mummer, miming is to be distinguished from silent comedy, in which the artist is a

Music
–
Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. The common elements of music are pitch, rhythm, dynamics, different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. The word derives from Greek μουσική, Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizon

1.
A painting on an Ancient Greek vase depicts a music lesson (c. 510 BC).

2.
Jean-Gabriel Ferlan performing at a 2008 concert at the collège-lycée Saint-François Xavier

Opera
–
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is giv

Puppetry
–
Such a performance is also known as a puppet play. The puppeteer uses movements of her hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to move the body, head, limbs, and in some cases the mouth and eyes of the puppet. The puppeteer often speaks in the voice of the character of the puppet, the actions, gestures and spoken parts acted out by

1.
Punch and Judy puppetry performance to children in Thornton Hough, England

Public speaking
–
Public speaking is the process or act of performing a speech to a live audience. This type of speech is deliberately structured with three general purposes, to inform, to persuade and to entertain, Public speaking is commonly understood as formal, face-to-face speaking of a single person to a group of listeners. It is closely related to presenting,

Theatre
–
The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence, the specific place of the performance is also named by the word theatre as derived from the Ancient Gr

Ventriloquism
–
Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a person changes his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered dummy. The act of ventriloquism is ventriloquizing, and the ability to do so is called in English the ability to throw ones voice. Originally, ventriloquism was a religio

1.
Sadler's Wells Theatre in the early 19th century, at a time when ventriloquist acts were becoming increasingly popular.

4.
A ventriloquist entertaining children at the Pueblo, Colorado, Buell Children's Museum

Genre
–
Genre is any form or type of communication in any mode with socially-agreed upon conventions developed over time. Genres form by conventions that change over time as new genres are invented, often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. Stand alone texts, works, or pieces of communication may have indi

Graphic arts
–
A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i. e. produced on a flat surface. Graphic art further includes calligraphy, photography, painting, typography, computer graphics and it also encompasses drawn plans and layouts for interior and architectural designs. Throughout history

1.
Graphic artists at work during the 1960s

2.
Example of graphic arts created with the free tool, Paint.net.

Performing art
–
Performing arts are a form of art in which artists use their voices and/or their bodies, often in relation to other objects, to convey artistic expression. It is different from visual arts, which is when artists use paint/canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects, performing arts include several disciplines, each performe

Irony
–
Irony, in its broadest sense, is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what appears, on the surface, to be the case, differs radically from what is actually the case. Irony may be divided into such as verbal, dramatic. Verbal, dramatic, and situational irony are often used for emphasis in the assertion of a truth, other forms,

1.
A stop sign ironically defaced with a plea not to deface stop signs.

Parody
–
A parody is a work created to imitate, make fun of, or comment on an original work—its subject, author, style, or some other target—by means of satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, parody … is imitation, another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemi

3.
Satirical political cartoon that appeared in Puck magazine, October 9, 1915. Caption "I did not raise my girl to be a voter" parodies the anti- World War I song " I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier ". A chorus of disreputable men support a lone anti-suffrage woman.

Exaggeration
–
Exaggeration is a representation of something in an excessive manner. exaggerating. It is the opposite of minimisation, inflated praise in the form of flattery and puffery has a similarly lengthy history. Exaggerating is also a type of deception, as well as a means of malingering – magnifying small injuries or discomforts as an excuse to avoid resp

2.
Charicature from 1796, parodizing the fashion of one or two feathers issuing vertically from a woman's headdress, as are also women's neo-classically influenced gown styles (rather new in England in 1796), and men's ultra-tight trousers (or "calf-clingers" in the slang of the period).

3.
Hamlet, by William Morris Hunt.

Double entendre
–
A double entendre is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to be understood in two ways, having a double meaning. Typically one of the meanings is obvious, given the context whereas the other may require more thought, the innuendo may convey a message that would be socially awkward, sexually suggestive, or offensive to s

1.
Lodgings to Let, an 1814 engraving featuring a double entendre. He: "My sweet honey, I hope you are to be let with the Lodgins!" She: "No, sir, I am to be let alone ".

2.
The first page of the poem "The Wanderer" found in the Exeter Book.

3.
Flax on a distaff

Internet meme
–
An Internet meme is an activity, concept, catchphrase or piece of media which spreads, often as mimicry, from person to person via the Internet. Some examples include posting a photo of people lying down in public places, a meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. An Internet meme may take the form of

Latin language
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages

Quintilian
–
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is referred to as Quintilian, although the alternate spellings of Quintillian and Quinctilian are occasionally seen. Quintilian was born c.35 in Calagurris in Hispania and his fa

Apuleius
–
Apuleius was a Latin-language prose writer, platonist philosopher and rhetorian. He was a Numidian who lived under the Roman Empire and was from Madauros and he studied Platonism in Athens, travelled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of usi

1.
Depiction of Apuleius

2.
Frontispiece from the Bohn Library 1902 edition of The Works of Apuleius: a portrait of Apuleius flanked by Pamphile changing into an owl and the Golden Ass

Greek mythology
–
It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Greek mythology is explicitly embodied in a collection of narratives. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. These accounts initially were disseminated in a tradition, today the Greek myths are k

4.
The Roman poet Virgil, here depicted in the fifth-century manuscript, the Vergilius Romanus, preserved details of Greek mythology in many of his writings.

Isaac Casaubon
–
Isaac Casaubon was a classical scholar and philologist, first in France and then later in England, regarded by many of his time as the most learned man in Europe. His son Méric Casaubon was also a classical scholar and he was born in Geneva to two French Huguenot refugees. The family returned to France after the Edict of Saint-Germain in 1562, and

1.
Isaac Casaubon

Laughter
–
Laughter is a physical reaction in humans and some other species of primate, consisting typically of rhythmical, often audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to external or internal stimuli. Laughter can arise from activities as being tickled, or from humorous stories or thoughts. Most comm

1.
Workers laughing in a clothing factory.

2.
A man laughing

3.
Laughter is a common response to tickling. In this case, this boy is laughing because he is being tickled.

Ig Nobel Prize
–
The Ig Nobel Prizes are parodies of the Nobel Prizes given out each autumn for 10 unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. They have been awarded since 1991, with the aim to honor achievements that first make people laugh. The awards can be veiled criticism or satire, but are used to point out that even absurd-sounding avenues of res

Collective unconscious
–
Collective unconscious, a term coined by Carl Jung, refers to structures of the unconscious mind which are shared among beings of the same species. Jung considered the collective unconscious to underpin and surround the unconscious mind and he argued that the collective unconscious had profound influence on the lives of individuals, who lived out i

4.
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael. Aristotle gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience, while holding a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics in his hand. Plato holds his Timaeus and gestures to the heavens, representing his belief in The Forms

Aristophanes

1.
Theatre of Dionysus, Athens — in Aristophanes' time, the audience probably sat on wooden benches with earth foundations.

3.
David Woodard and Burroughs standing in front of a dreamachine invented by Brion Gysin; Burroughs collaborated with Gysin in popularizing the literary cut-up technique, with which he wrote The Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded, and Nova Express.

1.
Satyr
–
In Greek mythology, a satyr is one of a troop of ithyphallic male companions of Dionysus with goat-like features and often permanent erection. Early artistic representations sometimes include horse-like legs, but in 6th-century BC black-figure pottery human legs are the most common, in Roman Mythology there is a concept similar to satyrs, with goat-like features, the faun, being half-man, half-goat, who roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are associated with pipe-playing. Greek-speaking Romans often used the Greek term saturos when referring to the Latin faunus, the satyrs chief was Silenus, a minor deity associated with fertility. These characters can be found in the complete remaining satyr play, Cyclops, by Euripides. The satyr play was a short, lighthearted tailpiece performed after each trilogy of tragedies in Athenian festivals honoring Dionysus, there is not enough evidence to determine whether the satyr play regularly drew on the same myths as those dramatized in the tragedies that preceded. The groundbreaking tragic playwright Aeschylus is said to have especially loved for his satyr plays. Mature satyrs are depicted in Roman art with goats horns. As Dionysiac creatures they are lovers of wine and women, because of their love of wine, they are often represented holding wine cups, and they appear often in the decorations on wine cups. Attic painted vases depict mature satyrs as being built with flat noses, large pointed ears, long curly hair. Satyrs often carry the thyrsus, the rod of Dionysus tipped with a pine cone, in earlier Greek art, Silenos appear as old and ugly, but in later art, especially in Hellenistic art, he is softened into a more youthful and graceful aspect. This transformation or humanization of the Satyr appears throughout late Greek art, another example of this shift occurs in the portrayal of Medusa and in that of the Amazon, characters who are traditionally depicted as barbaric and uncivilized. A humanized Satyr is depicted in a work of Praxiteles known as the Resting Satyr, Praxiteles gives a new direction to the satyr in art. Although not mentioned by Homer, in a fragment of Hesiods works satyrs are called brothers of the nymphs and Kuretes. In the Dionysus cult, male followers are known as satyrs, in Attica there was a species of drama dealing with the legends of gods and heroes, and the chorus was composed of satyrs and sileni. In the Athenian satyr plays of the 5th century BC, the chorus commented on the action and this satyric drama burlesqued the serious events of the mythic past with lewd pantomime and subversive mockery. One complete satyr play from the 5th century survives, the Cyclops of Euripides, the Satyr and the Traveller, one of Aesops Fables, features the satyr as the benevolent host for a traveler in the forest in winter. The satyr is bewildered by the claim to be able to blow hot and cold with the same breath, first to warm his hands, then to cool his porridge

2.
Punch (magazine)
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Punch, or The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, after the 1940s, when its circulation peaked, it went into a long decline, closing in 1992. It was revived in 1996, but closed again in 2002, Punch was founded on 17 July 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells, on an initial investment of £25. It was jointly edited by Mayhew and Mark Lemon and it was subtitled The London Charivari in homage to Charles Philipons French satirical humour magazine Le Charivari. Mayhew ceased to be joint editor in 1842 and became suggestor in chief until he severed his connection in 1845, the magazine initially struggled for readers, except for an 1842 Almanack issue which shocked its creators by selling 90,000 copies. In December 1842 due to difficulties the magazine was sold to Bradbury and Evans. Bradbury and Evans capitalised on newly evolving mass printing technologies and also were the publishers for Charles Dickens, Punch humorously appropriated the term to refer to its political cartoons, and the popularity of the Punch cartoons led to the terms widespread use. The illustrator Archibald Henning designed the cover of the magazines first issues, the cover design varied in the early years, though Richard Doyle designed what became the magazines masthead in 1849. Artists who published in Punch during the 1840s and 50s included John Leech, Richard Doyle, John Tenniel and this group became known as The Punch Brotherhood, which also included Charles Dickens who joined Bradbury and Evans after leaving Chapman and Hall in 1843. Punch authors and artists contributed to another Bradbury and Evans literary magazine called Once A Week. In the 1860s and 1870s, conservative Punch faced competition from upstart liberal journal Fun, at Evanss café in London, the two journals had Round tables in competition with each other. Punch gave several phrases to the English language, including The Crystal Palace, several British humour classics were first serialised in Punch, such as the Diary of a Nobody and 1066 and All That. Towards the end of the century, the artistic roster included Harry Furniss, Linley Sambourne, Francis Carruthers Gould. Among the outstanding cartoonists of the century were Bernard Partridge, H. M. Bateman, Bernard Hollowood who also edited the magazine from 1957 to 1968, Kenneth Mahood. Circulation broke the 100,000 mark around 1910, and peaked in 1947–1948 at 175,000 to 184,000, sales declined steadily thereafter, ultimately, the magazine was forced to close in 1992 after 150 years of publication. Punch was widely emulated worldwide and popular in the colonies, however, the colonial experience, especially in India, also influenced Punch and its iconography. Tenniels Punch cartoons of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny led to a surge in the magazines popularity, colonial India was time and again caricatured in Punch and can be seen as a significant source for producing knowledge about India. Many Punch cartoonists of the late 20th century published collections of their own, Punch magazine ceased publishing in 1992

Punch (magazine)
Punch (magazine)
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Cover of the first Punch, or The London Charivari, depicts Punch hanging a caricatured Devil, 1841 (see gallery below for enlarged detail)
Punch (magazine)
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Editorial meeting of Punch magazine in the late 19th century

3.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The British HMS Sandwich fires into the French flagshipBucentaure (completely dismasted) during Trafalgar. The Bucentaure also fights HMS Victory (behind her) and HMS Temeraire (left side of the picture). In fact, HMS Sandwich never fought at Trafalgar, it's a mistake by Auguste Mayer, the painter.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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Flag
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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Signing of the Treaty of Ghent (1814), by A. Forestier c. 1915
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The Duke of Wellington

4.
Literature
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Literature, in its broadest sense, is any single body of written works. Its Latin root literatura/litteratura was used to refer to all written accounts, developments in print technology have allowed an evergrowing distribution and proliferation of written works, culminating in electronic literature. There have been attempts to define literature. Simon and Delyse Ryan begin their attempt to answer the question What is Literature, with the observation, The quest to discover a definition for literature is a road that is much travelled, though the point of arrival, if ever reached, is seldom satisfactory. Most attempted definitions are broad and vague, and they change over time. In fact, the thing that is certain about defining literature is that the definition will change. Concepts of what is literature change over time as well, definitions of literature have varied over time, it is a culturally relative definition. In Western Europe prior to the century, literature as a term indicated all books. A more restricted sense of the term emerged during the Romantic period, contemporary debates over what constitutes literature can be seen as returning to the older, more inclusive notion of what constitutes literature. Cultural studies, for instance, takes as its subject of both popular and minority genres, in addition to canonical works. The value judgment definition of literature considers it to cover exclusively those writings that possess high quality or distinction and this sort of definition is that used in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition when it classifies literature as the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing. The formalist definition is that literature foregrounds poetic effects, it is the literariness or poetic of literature that distinguishes it from ordinary speech or other kinds of writing. Etymologically, the term derives from Latin literatura/litteratura learning, a writing, grammar, originally writing formed with letters, in spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or sung texts. Poetry is a form of art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of. Possibly as a result of Aristotles influence, poetry before the century was usually less a technical designation for verse than a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art. As a form it may pre-date literacy, with the earliest works being composed within and sustained by an oral tradition, novel, a long fictional prose narrative. It was the close relation to real life that differentiated it from the chivalric romance, in most European languages the equivalent term is roman. In English, the term emerged from the Romance languages in the fifteenth century, with the meaning of news, it came to indicate something new

5.
Novel
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A novel is any relatively long piece of written narrative fiction, normally in prose, and typically published as a book. The genre has also described as possessing, a continuous. This view sees the novels origins in Classical Greece and Rome, medieval, early modern romance, the latter, an Italian word used to describe short stories, supplied the present generic English term in the 18th century. The romance is a closely related long prose narrative, Romance, as defined here, should not be confused with the genre fiction love romance or romance novel. Other European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel, a novel is le roman, der Roman, il romanzo, a novel is a long, fictional narrative which describes intimate human experiences. Most European languages use the word romance for extended narratives, fictionality is most commonly cited as distinguishing novels from historiography. However this can be a problematic criterion, historians would also invent and compose speeches for didactic purposes. Novels can, on the hand, depict the social, political and personal realities of a place and period with clarity. Even in the 19th century, fictional narratives in verse, such as Lord Byrons Don Juan, Alexander Pushkins Yevgeniy Onegin, vikram Seths The Golden Gate, composed of 590 Onegin stanzas, is a more recent example of the verse novel. Both in 12th-century Japan and 15th-century Europe, prose fiction created intimate reading situations, on the other hand, verse epics, including the Odyssey and Aeneid, had been recited to a select audiences, though this was a more intimate experience than the performance of plays in theaters. A new world of Individualistic fashion, personal views, intimate feelings, secret anxieties, conduct and gallantry spread with novels, the novel is today the longest genre of narrative prose fiction, followed by the novella, short story, and flash fiction. However, in the 17th century critics saw the romance as of epic length, the length of a novel can still be important because most literary awards use length as a criterion in the ranking system. Urbanization and the spread of printed books in Song Dynasty China led to the evolution of oral storytelling into consciously fictional novels by the Ming dynasty, parallel European developments did not occur for centuries, and awaited the time when the availability of paper allowed for similar opportunities. By contrast, Ibn Tufails Hayy ibn Yaqdhan and Ibn al-Nafis Theologus Autodidactus are works of didactic philosophy, in this sense, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan would be considered an early example of a philosophical novel, while Theologus Autodidactus would be considered an early theological novel. Epic poetry exhibits some similarities with the novel, and the Western tradition of the novel back into the field of verse epics. Then at the beginning of the 18th century, French prose translations brought Homers works to a wider public, longus is the author of the famous Greek novel, Daphnis and Chloe. Romance or chivalric romance is a type of narrative in prose or verse popular in the circles of High Medieval. In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love

6.
Poetry
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Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotles Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on such as repetition, verse form and rhyme. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a creative act employing language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm. Some poetry types are specific to cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing, among other things, in todays increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages. Some scholars believe that the art of poetry may predate literacy, others, however, suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing. The oldest surviving poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, comes from the 3rd millennium BCE in Sumer. An example of Egyptian epic poetry is The Story of Sinuhe, other forms of poetry developed directly from folk songs. The earliest entries in the oldest extant collection of Chinese poetry, the efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulted in poetics—the study of the aesthetics of poetry. Some ancient societies, such as Chinas through her Shijing, developed canons of poetic works that had ritual as well as aesthetic importance, Classical thinkers employed classification as a way to define and assess the quality of poetry. Later aestheticians identified three major genres, epic poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry, Aristotles work was influential throughout the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age, as well as in Europe during the Renaissance. English Romantic poet John Keats termed this escape from logic Negative Capability and this romantic approach views form as a key element of successful poetry because form is abstract and distinct from the underlying notional logic

7.
Literary genre
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A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by technique, tone, content. The distinctions between genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined, often with subgroups, the most general genres in literature are epic, tragedy, comedy, and creative nonfiction. They can all be in the form of prose or poetry, additionally, a genre such as satire, allegory or pastoral might appear in any of the above, not only as a subgenre, but as a mixture of genres. Finally, they are defined by the cultural movement of the historical period in which they were composed. Genre should not be confused with age categories, by which literature may be classified as adult, young adult. They also must not be confused with format, such as novel or picture book. Just as in painting, there are different types, the landscape, the still life and these types tend to share specific characteristics. Genres describe those works which share specific conventions, Genres are often divided into subgenres. Literature, is divided into the three forms of Ancient Greece, poetry, drama, and prose. Poetry may then be subdivided into the genres of lyric, epic, the lyric includes all the shorter forms of poetry, e. g. song, ode, ballad, elegy, sonnet. Dramatic poetry might include comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and mixtures like tragicomedy, the standard division of drama into tragedy and comedy derives from Greek drama. This parsing into subgenres can continue, comedy has its own subgenres, including, for example, comedy of manners, sentimental comedy, burlesque comedy, and satirical comedy. Often, the used to divide up works into genres are not consistent, and may change constantly. Types of fiction genres are science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, realistic fiction, semi-fiction spans stories that include a substantial amount of non-fiction. It may be the retelling of a story with only the names changed. The other way around, semi-fiction may also involve fictional events with a semi-fictional character, Genres may easily be confused with literary techniques, but, though only loosely defined, they are not the same, examples are parody, frame story, constrained writing, stream of consciousness. Drama Poem Prose Genre fiction Bakhtin, Mikhail M. Epic, on Narrative, The Law of Genre

8.
Comedy
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In a modern sense, comedy refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, and stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece, in the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a Society of Youth and a Society of the Old, a revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. Satire and political satire use comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them. Similarly scatological humour, sexual humour, and race humour create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways, a comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society and uses humor to parody or satirize the behaviour and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms. The adjective comic, which means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage. Of this, the word came into usage through the Latin comoedia and Italian commedia and has, over time. The Greeks and Romans confined their use of the comedy to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings. Aristotle defined comedy as an imitation of men worse than the average, however, the characters portrayed in comedies were not worse than average in every way, only insofar as they are Ridiculous, which is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others, the mask, for instance, in the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings. It is in this sense that Dante used the term in the title of his poem, as time progressed, the word came more and more to be associated with any sort of performance intended to cause laughter. During the Middle Ages, the comedy became synonymous with satire. They disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms and they viewed comedy as simply the art of reprehension, and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or to the troubling beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century, the term gained a more general meaning in medieval literature. Starting from 425 BCE, Aristophanes, a playwright and satirical author of the Ancient Greek Theater wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed his type of comedy from the satyr plays

9.
Epic poetry
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An epic poem, epic, epos, or epopee is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Milman Parry and Albert Lord have argued that the Homeric epics and these works form the basis of the epic genre in Western literature. Nearly all Western epic self-consciously presents itself as a continuation of the tradition begun by these poems, classical epic employs dactylic hexameter and recounts a journey, either physical or mental or both. Epics also tend to highlight cultural norms and to define or call into question cultural values, another type of epic poetry is epyllion, which is a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme. The term, which means little epic, came into use in the nineteenth century, the most famous example of classical epyllion is perhaps Catullus 64. The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral history poetic traditions, in these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. Early twentieth-century study of living oral traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry. What they demonstrated was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and this facilitates memorization, as the poet is recalling each episode in turn and using the completed episodes to recreate the entire epic as he performs it. Parry and Lord also contend that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance, poets in literate societies have sometimes copied the epic format. The earliest surviving European examples are the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes and Virgils Aeneid, other obvious examples are Nonnus Dionysiaca, Tulsidas Sri Ramacharit Manas. In his work Poetics, Aristotle defines an epic as one of the forms of poetry, contrasted with lyric poetry, an attempt to delineate ten main characteristics of an epic, Begins in medias res. The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe, Begins with an invocation to a muse. Begins with a statement of the theme, contains long lists, called an epic catalogue. Shows divine intervention on human affairs, features heroes that embody the values of the civilization. Often features the tragic heros descent into the Underworld or hell, the hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey and returns home significantly transformed by his journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society the epic originates from, many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native culture. Conventions of epics, Preposition, Opens by stating the theme or cause of the epic and this may take the form of a purpose, of a question, or of a situation. Invocation, Writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus, the poet prays to the Muses to provide him with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero

10.
Literary nonsense
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Literary nonsense is a broad categorization of literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or logical reasoning. Even though the most well-known form of nonsense is nonsense verse. The effect of nonsense is often caused by an excess of meaning and its humor is derived from its nonsensical nature, rather than wit or the joke of a punchline. Literary nonsense, as recognized since the century, comes from a combination of two broad artistic sources. The first and older source is the folk tradition, including games, songs, dramas. The literary figure Mother Goose represents common incarnations of this style of writing, the second, newer source of literary nonsense is in the intellectual absurdities of court poets, scholars, and intellectuals of various kinds. Todays literary nonsense comes from a combination of both sources, Lewis Carroll continued this trend, making literary nonsense a worldwide phenomenon with Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Carrolls poem Jabberwocky, which appears in the book, is often considered quintessential nonsense literature. In literary nonsense, certain elements of language and logic that facilitate meaning are balanced by elements that negate meaning. These formal elements include semantics, syntax, phonetics, context, representation, Nonsense tautology, reduplication, and absurd precision have also been used in the nonsense genre. For a text to be within the genre of literary nonsense, if the text employs only occasional nonsense devices, then it may not be classified as literary nonsense, though there may be a nonsensical effect to certain portions of the work. Laurence Sternes Tristram Shandy, for instance, employs the device of imprecision by including a blank page. In Flann OBriens The Third Policeman, on the hand, many of the devices of nonsense are present throughout. Gibberish, light verse, fantasy, and jokes and riddles are sometimes mistaken for literary nonsense, pure gibberish, as in the hey diddle diddle of nursery rhyme, is a device of nonsense, but it does not make a text, overall, literary nonsense. If there is not significant sense to balance out such devices, Nonsense is distinct from fantasy, though there are sometimes resemblances between them. The distinction lies in the coherent and unified nature of fantasy, the nature of magic within an imaginary world is an example of this distinction. Fantasy worlds employ the presence of magic to explain the impossible. In nonsense literature, magic is rare but when it does occur, riddles only appear to be nonsense until the answer is found

11.
Lyric poetry
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Lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, the lyric, the term owes its importance in literary theory to the division developed by Aristotle between three broad categories of poetry, lyrical, dramatic and epic. Much lyric poetry depends on regular meter based either on number of syllables or on stress, the most common meters are as follows, Iambic – two syllables, with the short or unstressed syllable followed by the long or stressed syllable. Trochaic – two syllables, with the long or stressed syllable followed by the short or unstressed syllable, in English, this metre is found almost entirely in lyric poetry. Pyrrhic – Two unstressed syllables Anapestic – three syllables, with the first two short or unstressed and the last long or stressed, dactylic – three syllables, with the first one long or stressed and the other two short or unstressed. Spondaic – two syllables, with two successive long or stressed syllables, some forms have a combination of meters, often using a different meter for the refrain. For the ancient Greeks, lyric poetry had a technical meaning, verse that was accompanied by a lyre, cithara. Because such works were sung, it was also known as melic poetry. The lyric or melic poet was distinguished from the writer of plays, the writer of trochaic and iambic verses, the writer of elegies, the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria created a canon of nine lyric poets deemed especially worthy of critical study. These archaic and classical musician-poets included Sappho, Alcaeus, Anacreon, archaic lyric was characterized by strophic composition and live musical performance. Some poets, like Pindar extended the metrical forms to a triad, including strophe, antistrophe, among the major extant Roman poets of the classical period, only Catullus and Horace wrote lyric poetry, which however was no longer meant to be sung but instead read or recited. What remained were the forms, the meters of the Greeks adapted to Latin. Catullus was influenced by both archaic and Hellenistic Greek verse and belonged to a group of Roman poets called the Neoteroi who spurned epic poetry following the lead of Callimachus, instead, they composed brief, highly polished poems in various thematic and metrical genres. The varying forms of the new Chu ci provided more rhythm, originating in 10th-century Persian, a ghazal is a poetic form consisting of couplets that share a rhyme and a refrain. Formally, it consists of a short lyric composed in a meter with a single rhyme throughout. Notable authors include Hafiz, Amir Khusro, Auhadi of Maragheh, Alisher Navoi, Obeid e zakani, Khaqani Shirvani, Anvari, Farid al-Din Attar, Omar Khayyam, and Rudaki. The ghazal was introduced to European poetry in the early 19th century by the Germans Schlegel, Von Hammer-Purgstall, and Goethe, lyric in European literature of the medieval or Renaissance period means a poem written so that it could be set to music—whether or not it actually was. A poems particular structure, function, or theme might all vary, the lyric poetry of Europe in this period was created by the pioneers of courtly poetry and courtly love largely without reference to the classical past

12.
Mythopoeia
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Mythopoeia is a narrative genre in modern literature and film where a fictional or artificial mythology is created by the writer of prose or other fiction. This meaning of the word mythopoeia follows its use by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s, the authors in this genre integrate traditional mythological themes and archetypes into fiction. Mythopoeia is also the act of making mythologies, notable mythopoeic authors include Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, William Blake, H. P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, Mervyn Peake and George MacDonald. While many literary works carry mythic themes, only a few approach the dense self-referentiality and it is invented mythology that, rather than arising out of centuries of oral tradition, are penned over a short period of time by a single author or small group of collaborators. Mythopoeia are almost invariably created entirely by an individual, like the world of Middle-earth, the term mythopoeia is from Greek μυθοποιία, myth-making. In early uses, it referred to the making of myths in ancient times and it was adopted and used by Tolkien as a title of one of his poems, written in 1931 and published in Tree and Leaf. The poem popularized the word mythopoeia as a literary and artistic endeavor, works of mythopoeia are often categorized as fantasy or science fiction but fill a niche for mythology in the modern world, according to Joseph Campbell, a famous student of world mythology. Campbell spoke of a Nietzschean world which has today outlived much of the mythology of the past. He claimed that new myths must be created, but he believed that present culture is changing too rapidly for society to be described by any such mythological framework until a later age. For example, the noted folklorist Alan Dundes argued that any novel cannot meet the criteria of myth. A work of art, or artifice, cannot be said to be the narrative of a sacred tradition. Perhaps the first attempt to construct mythology was the book of Pherecydes of Syros, Pherecydes transformed the Greek pantheon beyond recognition, with Zas rather than Zeus as the king of the gods, and Chronos rather than Kronos as Zass father. Pherecydess book was a key turning-point in the Greek movement towards scientific, Lord Dunsanys book The Gods of Pegana, published in 1905, is a series of short stories linked by Dunsanys invented pantheon of deities who dwell in Pegāna. It was followed by a further collection Time and the Gods and by some stories in The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories, in 1919 Dunsany told an American interviewer In The Gods of Pegana I tried to account for the ocean and the moon. I dont know anyone else has ever tried that before. Dunsanys work influenced J. R. R. Tolkiens later writings, the poem refers to the creative human author as the little maker wielding his own small golden sceptre ruling his subcreation. Tolkiens legendarium includes not only origin myths, creation myths and a poetry cycle. At about the time, he addressed the same topics in the form of a short story

13.
Chivalric romance
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As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric or burlesque intent. Still, the image of medieval is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word medieval evokes knights, distressed damsels, dragons. Originally, romance literature was written in Old French, Anglo-Norman, Occitan, and Provençal, during the early 13th century, romances were increasingly written as prose. In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love. Unlike the later form of the novel and like the chansons de geste, the earliest forms were invariably in verse, but the 15th century saw many in prose, often retelling the old, rhymed versions. Many influences are clear in the forms of chivalric romance, the epics of Charlemagne, unlike such ones as Beowulf, already had feudalism rather than the tribal loyalties, this was to continue in romances. The romance form is distinguished from the epics of the Middle Ages by the changes of the 12th century. This occurred regardless of congruity to the material, Alexander the Great featured as a fully feudal king. Chivalry was treated as continuous from Roman times, historical figures reappeared, reworked, in romance. The entire Matter of France derived from known figures, and suffered somewhat because their descendents had an interest in the tales that were told of their ancestors, unlike the Matter of Britain. Hereward the Wakes early life appeared in chronicles as the embellished, romantic adventures of an exile, complete with rescuing princess, fulk Fitzwarin, an outlaw in King Johns day, has his historical background a minor thread in the episodic stream of romantic adventures. The earliest medieval romances dealt heavily with themes from folklore, which diminished over time, morgan le Fay never loses her name, but in Le Morte dArthur, she studies magic rather than being inherently magical. Still, fairies never completely vanished from the tradition, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late tale, but the Green Knight himself is an otherworldly being. In Italy there is the story called Il Bel Gherardino and it is the most ancient prototype of an Italian singing fairy tale by an anonymous Tuscan author. It tells the story of a young Italian knight, depleted for its magnanimitas, other examples of Italian poetry tales are Antonio Puccis literature, Gismirante, Il Brutto di Bretagna or Brito di Bretagna and Madonna Lionessa. Another work of a second anonymous Italian author that is worth mentioning is Istoria di Tre Giovani Disperati e di Tre Fate, some romances, such as Apollonius of Tyre, show classical pagan origins. Tales of the Matter of Rome in particular may be derived from such works as the Alexander Romance

14.
Tragedy
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Tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences. In the wake of Aristotles Poetics, tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions, in the modern era, tragedy has also been defined against drama, melodrama, the tragicomic, and epic theatre. Drama, in the sense, cuts across the traditional division between comedy and tragedy in an anti- or a-generic deterritorialisation from the mid-19th century onwards. Both Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal define their epic theatre projects against models of tragedy, taxidou, however, reads epic theatre as an incorporation of tragic functions and its treatments of mourning and speculation. The word tragedy appears to have used to describe different phenomena at different times. It derives from Classical Greek τραγῳδία, contracted from trag-aoidiā = goat song, scholars suspect this may be traced to a time when a goat was either the prize in a competition of choral dancing or was that around which a chorus danced prior to the animals ritual sacrifice. In another view on the etymology, Athenaeus of Naucratis says that the form of the word was trygodia from trygos and ode. There is some dissent to the origins of tragedy, mostly based on the differences between the shapes of their choruses and styles of dancing. A common descent from pre-Hellenic fertility and burial rites has been suggested, friedrich Nietzsche discussed the origins of Greek tragedy in his early book The Birth of Tragedy. Here, he suggests the name originates in the use of a chorus of goat-like satyrs in the original dithyrambs from which the genre developed. Scott Scullion writes, There is abundant evidence for tragoidia understood as song for the prize goat, and as prize was established the billy goat, the clearest is Eustathius 1769.45, They called those competing tragedians, clearly because of the song over the billy goat. Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important part of the culture of the city-state. Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BCE, it flowered during the 5th century BCE, no tragedies from the 6th century and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in the 5th century have survived. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, Athenian tragedies were performed in late March/early April at an annual state religious festival in honor of Dionysus. The presentations took the form of a contest between three playwrights, who presented their works on three successive days, each playwright offered a tetralogy consisting of three tragedies and a concluding comic piece called a satyr play. The four plays sometimes featured linked stories, only one complete trilogy of tragedies has survived, the Oresteia of Aeschylus. The Greek theatre was in the air, on the side of a hill. Performances were apparently open to all citizens, including women, the theatre of Dionysus at Athens probably held around 12,000 people

15.
Tragicomedy
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Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in literature, the term can variously describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious play with a happy ending. There is no formal definition of tragicomedy from the classical age. It appears that the Greek philosopher Aristotle had something like the Renaissance meaning of the term in mind when, in Poetics, he discusses tragedy with a dual ending. In this respect, a number of Greek and Roman plays, for instance Alcestis, may be called tragicomedies, the word itself originates with the Roman comic playwright Plautus, who coined the term somewhat facetiously in the prologue to his play Amphitryon. For rule mongers, mixed works such as mentioned above, more recent romances such as Orlando Furioso. Two figures helped to elevate tragicomedy to the status of a regular genre, Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio, in the mid-sixteenth century, both argued that the tragedy-with-comic-ending was most appropriate to modern times and produced his own examples of such plays. Even more important was Giovanni Battista Guarini, Guarinis Il Pastor Fido, published in 1590, provoked a fierce critical debate in which Guarinis spirited defense of generic innovation eventually carried the day. Guarinis tragicomedy offered modulated action that never drifted too far either to comedy or tragedy, mannered characters, all three became staples of continental tragicomedy for a century and more. In England, where practice ran ahead of theory, the situation was quite different, for the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men. Some aspects of this romantic impulse remain even in the work of more sophisticated playwrights, Shakespeares last plays, by the early Stuart period, some English playwrights had absorbed the lessons of the Guarini controversy. John Fletchers The Faithful Shepherdess, an adaptation of Guarinis play, was produced in 1608. Fletchers definition focuses primarily on events, a genre is determined by whether or not people die in it. Some of Fletchers contemporaries, notably Philip Massinger and James Shirley, wrote successful, richard Brome also essayed the form, but with less success. And many of their writers, ranging from John Ford to Lodowick Carlell to Sir Aston Cockayne. Tragicomedy remained fairly popular up to the closing of the theaters in 1642, the old styles were of course cast aside as tastes changed in the eighteenth century, the tragedy with a happy ending eventually developed into melodrama, in which form it still flourishes. The more subtle criticism that developed after the Renaissance stressed the thematic and formal aspects of tragicomedy, gotthold Ephraim Lessing defined it as a mixture of emotions in which seriousness stimulates laughter, and pain pleasure. Even more commonly, tragicomedys affinity with satire and dark comedy have suggested a tragicomic impulse in modern absurdist drama, friedrich Dürrenmatt, the Swiss dramatist, suggested that tragicomedy was the inevitable genre for the twentieth century, he describes his play The Visit as a tragicomedy

16.
Performance
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A performance, in the performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers present one or more works of art to an audience. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand, the means of expressing appreciation can vary by culture. Chinese performers will clap with the audience at the end of a performance, in Japan, folk performing-arts performances commonly attract individuals who take photographs, sometimes getting up to the stage and within inches of performers faces. Sometimes the dividing line between performer and the audience may become blurred, as in the example of theatre where audience members get involved in the production. Theatrical performances can take place daily or at some other regular interval, performances can take place at designated performance spaces, or in a non-conventional space, such as a subway station, on the street, or in somebodys home. Theatrical performances, especially when the audience is limited to only a few observers and this increase takes place in several stages relative to the performance itself, including anticipatory activation, confrontation activation and release period. The same physiological reactions can be experienced in other mediums, such as instrumental performance, heart rate shares a strong, positive correlation with the self reported anxiety of performers. Other physiological responses to public performance include perspiration, secretion of the adrenal glands, a performance may also describe the way in which an actor performs. In a solo capacity, it may refer to a mime artist, comedian, conjurer. Audio electronics Entertainment Live sound mixing Performance science Rock festival Sound technology Spectacle Stadium Stagecraft Theater

17.
Play (theatre)
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A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Plays are performed at a variety of levels, from Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater, to Community theatre, there are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference as to whether their plays were performed or read. The term play can refer to both the works of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance. Comedies are plays which are designed to be humorous, comedies are often filled with witty remarks, unusual characters, and strange circumstances. Certain comedies are geared toward different age groups, comedies were one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece, along with tragedies. An example of a comedy would be William Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream, a generally nonsensical genre of play, farces are often overacted and often involve slapstick humor. An example of a farce includes William Shakespeares play The Comedy of Errors, a satire play takes a comic look at current events people while at the same time attempting to make a political or social statement, for example pointing out corruption. An example of a satire would be Nikolai Gogols The Government Inspector, satire plays are generally one of the most popular forms of comedy, and often considered to be their own genre entirely. This is a genre that explored relationships between men and women, and was considered risqué in its time, however, since restoration comedy dealt with unspoken aspects of relationships, it created a type of connection between audience and performance that was more informal and private. It is commonly agreed that restoration comedy has origins in Molière’s theories of comedy, the inconsistency between restoration comedy’s morals and the morals of the era is something that often arises during the study of this genre. This may give clues as to why, despite its original success, however, in recent years, it has become a topic of interest for theatre theorists, who have been looking into theatre styles that have their own conventions of performance. These plays contain darker themes such as death and disaster, often the protagonist of the play has a tragic flaw, a trait which leads to their downfall. Tragic plays convey all emotions and have extremely dramatic conflicts, tragedy was one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece. Some examples of tragedies include William Shakespeares Hamlet, and also John Websters play The Duchess of Malfi and these plays focus on actual historical events. They can be tragedies or comedies, but are neither of these. History as a genre was popularized by William Shakespeare. Examples of historical plays include Friedrich Schillers Demetrius and William Shakespeares King John, ballad opera, a popular theatre style at the time, was the first style of musical to be performed in the American colonies. The first musical of American origin was premiered in Philadelphia in 1767, and was called “The Disappointment”, however, around the 1920s, theatre styles were beginning to be defined more clearly

18.
Book
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A book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other materials, fastened together to hinge at one side, with text and/or images printed in ink. A single sheet within a book is a leaf, and each side of a leaf is a page, a set of text-filled or illustrated pages produced in electronic format for reading on a computer screen, smartphone or e-reader device is known as an electronic book, or e-book. The term books may refer the body of works of literature. In library and information science, a book is called a monograph, to distinguish it from serial periodicals such as magazines, journals, in novels and sometimes other types of books, a book may be divided into several large sections, also called books. An avid reader or collector of books or a lover is a bibliophile or colloquially. A shop where books are bought and sold is a bookshop or bookstore, Books are also sold in some department stores, drugstores and newspaper vendors. Books can also be borrowed from libraries, google has estimated that as of 2010, approximately 130,000,000 distinct titles had been published. In some wealthier nations, printed books are giving way to the usage of electronic or e-books, the word book comes from Old English bōc, which in turn comes from the Germanic root *bōk-, cognate to beech. Similarly, in Slavic languages буква is cognate with beech, in Russian and in Serbian and Macedonian, the word букварь or буквар refers specifically to a primary school textbook that helps young children master the techniques of reading and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved on beech wood, similarly, the Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense, originally meant block of wood. When writing systems were created in ancient civilizations, a variety of objects, such as stone, clay, tree bark, metal sheets, the study of such inscriptions forms a major part of history. The study of inscriptions is known as epigraphy, the Ancient Egyptians would often write on papyrus, a plant grown along the Nile River. At first the words were not separated from other and there was no punctuation. Texts were written right to left, left to right. The technical term for that last type of writing is boustrophedon, a tablet might be defined as a physically robust writing medium, suitable for casual transport and writing. See also stylus, the instrument used to write on a tablet, clay tablets were flattened and mostly dry pieces of clay that could be easily carried, and impressed with a stylus. They were used as a medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age. Tablets were used by traders to record sales of such as bushels of grain

19.
History of literature
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Some recorded materials, such as compilations of data are not considered literature, and this article relates only to the evolution of the works defined above. Literature and writing, though connected, are not synonymous, scholars have often disagreed concerning when written record-keeping became more like literature than anything else, the definition is largely subjective. Moreover, given the significance of distance as a cultural isolator in earlier centuries, the historical development of literature did not occur at an even pace across the world. Much has been written, for example, about the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in the 1st century BC, the deliberate suppression of texts by organisations of either a spiritual or a temporal nature further shrouds the subject. Certain primary texts, however, may be isolated which have a role as literatures first stirrings. Many texts handed down by oral tradition over several centuries before they were fixed in form are difficult or impossible to date. The core of the Rigveda may date to the mid 2nd millennium BC, the Pentateuch is traditionally dated to the 15th century, although modern scholarship estimates its oldest part to date to the 10th century BC at the earliest. Homers Iliad and Odyssey date to the 8th century BC and mark the beginning of Classical Antiquity and they also stand in an oral tradition that stretches back to the late Bronze Age. The great Hindu epics were also transmitted orally, likely predating the Maurya period, the Classic of Poetry is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, comprising 305 works by anonymous authors dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC. The Chu Ci anthology is a volume of poems attributed to or considered to be inspired by Qu Yuans verse writing. Qu Yuan is the first author of verse in China to have his name associated to his work and is regarded as one of the most prominent figures of Romanticism in Chinese classical literature. The first great author on military tactics and strategy was Sun Tzu, among the earliest Chinese works of narrative history, Zuo Zhuan is a gem of classical Chinese prose. This work and the Shiji or Records of the Grand Historian, were regarded as the models by many generations of prose stylists in ancient China. The books that constitute the Hebrew Bible developed over roughly a millennium, the oldest texts seem to come from the eleventh or tenth centuries BCE, whilst most of the other texts are somewhat later. They are edited works, being collections of various sources intricately and carefully woven together, the Old Testament was compiled and edited by various men over a period of centuries, with many scholars concluding that the Hebrew canon was solidified by about the 3rd century BC. The works have been subject to various literary evaluations, friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “In the Jewish Old Testament, there are men, things and speeches in so grand a style that Greek and Indian literature have nothing to compare to it. One stands with awe and reverence before these tremendous remnants of what man once was, the taste for the Old Testament is a touchstone of greatness and smallness. ”Ancient Greek society placed considerable emphasis upon literature. Notable among later Greek poets was Sappho, who defined, in many ways, a playwright named Aeschylus changed Western literature forever when he introduced the ideas of dialogue and interacting characters to playwriting

20.
Sociology of literature
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The sociology of literature is a subfield of the sociology of culture. It studies the production of literature and its social implications. A notable example is Pierre Bourdieus 1992 Les Règles de LArt, Genèse et Structure du Champ Littéraire, translated by Susan Emanuel as Rules of Art, Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field. None of the fathers of sociology produced a detailed study of literature. Karl Marxs theory of ideology has been directed at literature by Pierre Macherey, Terry Eagleton, emile Durkheims view of sociology as the study of externally defined social facts was redirected towards literature by Robert Escarpit. In 1920 it was republished in book form and this strongly influenced the Frankfurt School. A second edition, published in 1962, was influential on French structuralism. The novel form is therefore organised around the hero in pursuit of problematic values within a problematic world. Here, Lukács argued that the early 19th century historical novels central achievement was to represent realistically the differences between pre-capitalist past and capitalist present. He went on to argue that the success of the 1848 revolutions led to the decline of the novel into decorative monumentalization. The key figures in the novel were thus those of the early 19th century. Founded in 1923, the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt developed a kind of critical sociology indebted to Marx, Weber. Leading Frankfurt School critics who worked on literature included Adorno, Walter Benjamin, adornos Notes to Literature, Benjamins The Origin of German Tragic Drama and Löwentahls Literature and the Image of Man were each influential studies in the sociology of literature. Löwenthal continued this work at the University of California, Berkeley, adornos Notes to Literature is a collection of essays, the most influential of which is probably On Lyric Poetry and Society. It argued that thought is a reaction against the commodification and reification of modern life, citing Goethe. Habermas succeeded Adorno to the Chair of Sociology and Philosophy at Frankfurt, habermass first major work, Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit was published in German in 1962, and in English translation as The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere in 1989. It attempted to explain the emergence of middle-class public opinion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These institutions sustained the early novel, newspaper and periodical press, Peter Bürger was Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Bremen

21.
Performing arts
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Performing arts are a form of art in which artists use their voices and/or their bodies, often in relation to other objects, to convey artistic expression. It is different from visual arts, which is when artists use paint/canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects, performing arts include several disciplines, each performed in front of a live audience. Artists who participate in performing arts in front of an audience are called performers, examples of these include actors, comedians, dancers, magicians, circus artists, musicians, and singers. Performing arts are supported by workers in related fields, such as songwriting, choreography. A performer who excels in acting, singing, and dancing is commonly referred to as a triple threat, well-known examples of historical triple threat artists include Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Judy Garland. Performers often adapt their appearance, such as costumes and stage makeup, stage lighting. Performing arts may include dance, music, opera, theatre and musical theatre, magic, illusion, mime, spoken word, puppetry, circus arts, performance art, recitation and public speaking. There is also a form of fine art, in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. Most performance art also involves some form of art, perhaps in the creation of props. Dance was often referred to as an art during the Modern dance era. Theatre is the branch of performing arts, concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience, using a combination of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound, any one or more of these elements is performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative style of plays. In the context of performing arts, dance generally refers to movement, typically rhythmic and to music. Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement to codified, in dance, the connection between the two concepts is stronger than in some other arts, and neither can exist without the other. Choreography is the art of making dances, and the person who practices this art is called a choreographer, music is an art form which combines pitch, rhythm, and dynamic in order to create sound. It can be performed using a variety of instruments and styles and is divided into genres, as an art form, music can occur in live or recorded formats, and can be planned or improvised. Starting in the 6th century BC, the Classical period of performing art began in Greece and these poets wrote plays which, in some cases, incorporated dance. The Hellenistic period began the use of comedy

22.
Ballet
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Ballet /ˈbæleɪ/ is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own based on French terminology. It has been influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres. Becoming a ballet dancer requires years of training, Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures to evolve the art. Ballet may also refer to a dance work, which consists of the choreography. A well-known example of this is The Nutcracker, a ballet that was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained artists, the word came into English usage from the French around 1630. Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries before being spread from Italy to France by an Italian aristocrat, Catherine de Medici, in France, ballet developed even further under her aristocratic influence. The dancers in these early court ballets were mostly noble amateurs, Ballets in this period were lengthy and elaborate and often served a political purpose. Ornamented costumes were meant to impress viewers and restricted freedom of movement. The ballets were performed in large chambers with viewers on three sides, French court ballet reached its height under the reign of King Louis XIV. Known as the Sun King, Louis symbolized the brilliance of France, in 1661 Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse to establish standards and certify dance instructors. In 1672, Louis XIV made Jean-Baptiste Lully the director of the Académie Royale de Musique from which the first professional ballet company, Lully is considered the most important composer of music for ballets de cour and instrumental to the development of the form. Ballet went into decline in France after 1830, though it continued to develop in Denmark, Italy, the arrival in Europe on the eve of First World War of the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, revived interest in the ballet and started the modern era. The Russian choreographer Michel Fokine challenged tradition and called for reforms that reinvigorated ballet as an art form, in the 20th century, ballet had a wide influence on other dance genres, and subgenres of ballet have also evolved. In the United States, choreographer George Balanchine developed what is now known as neoclassical ballet, other developments include contemporary ballet and post-structural ballet. Also in the century, ballet took a turn dividing it from classical ballet to the introduction of modern dance. Stylistic variations have emerged and evolved since the Italian Renaissance, early, classical variations are primarily associated with geographic origin

23.
List of circus skills
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Circus skills are a group of pursuits that have been performed as entertainment in circus, sideshow, busking, or variety/vaudeville/music hall shows. Most circus skills are still being performed today, many are also practiced by non-performers as a hobby. Circus schools and instructors use various systems of categorization to group circus skills by type, systems that have attempted to formally organize circus skills into pragmatic teaching groupings include the Gurevich system and the Hovey Burgess system. The Hovey Burgess pedagogy divides circus skills into three categories, each subdivided into three skill levels, Hovey Burgess has been known to compare his system to Newtons third law. Vaulting is concerned with action, juggling is concerned with reaction, circus skills which involve balancing or maintaining equilibrium. The term applies equally to acts in which the performer balances on a piece of equipment or a prop, unicycle riding Stilt walking Tightrope walking Acrobalance Juggling Devil sticks Plate spinning Risley act Contact juggling Burgess, Hovey

List of circus skills

24.
Clown
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Clowns are comic performers who employ slapstick or similar types of physical comedy, often in a mime style. Clowns have a tradition with significant variations in costume and performance. The most recognisable modern clown character is the Auguste or red clown type, with outlandish costumes featuring distinctive makeup, colourful wigs, exaggerated footwear and their entertainment style is generally designed to entertain large audiences, especially at a distance. Modern clowns are strongly associated with the tradition of the circus clown, many circus clowns have become well known and are a key circus act in their own right. The first mainstream clown role was portrayed by Joseph Grimaldi, the comedy that clowns perform is usually in the role of a fool whose everyday actions and tasks become extraordinary—and for whom the ridiculous, for a short while, becomes ordinary. This style of comedy has a history in many countries and cultures across the world. Some writers have argued that due to the use of such comedy. The fear of clowns, circus clowns in particular as a condition has become known by the term coulrophobia. Rustic buffoon characters in Classical Greek theater were known as sklêro-paiktês or deikeliktas, in Roman theater, a term for clown was fossor, literally digger, labourer. The English word clown is first recorded c.1560 in the generic meaning rustic, boor, the origin of the word is uncertain, perhaps from a Scandinavian word cognate with clumsy. It is in this sense that Clown is used as the name of characters in Shakespeares Othello. The sense of clown as referring to a professional or habitual fool or jester develops soon after 1600, the harlequinade developed in England in the 17th century, inspired by the commedia dellarte. It was here that Clown came into use as the name of a stock character. Originally a foil for Harlequins slyness and adroit nature, Clown was a buffoon or bumpkin fool who resembled less a jester than a comical idiot and he was a lower class character dressed in tattered servants garb. The circus clown developed in the 19th century, the modern circus derives from Philip Astleys London riding school, which opened in 1768. Astley added a clown to his shows to amuse the spectators between equestrian sequences, American comedian George L. Fox became known for his clown role, directly inspired by Grimaldi, in the 1860s. Tom Belling senior developed the red clown or Auguste character c,1870, acting as a foil for the more sophisticated white clown. Belling worked for Circus Renz in Vienna, the clown character as developed by the late 19th century is reflected in Ruggero Leoncavallos 1892 opera Pagliacci

25.
Dance
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Dance is a performance art form consisting of purposefully selected sequences of human movement. This movement has aesthetic and symbolic value, and is acknowledged as dance by performers and observers within a particular culture, Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements, or by its historical period or place of origin. Other forms of movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming. Theatrical dance, also called performance or concert dance, is intended primarily as a spectacle and it often tells a story, perhaps using mime, costume and scenery, or else it may simply interpret the musical accompaniment, which is often specially composed. Examples are western ballet and modern dance, Classical Indian dance and Chinese and Japanese song, most classical forms are centred upon dance alone, but performance dance may also appear in opera and other forms of musical theatre. Such dance seldom has any narrative, a group dance and a corps de ballet, a social partner dance and a pas de deux, differ profoundly. Even a solo dance may be solely for the satisfaction of the dancer. On the other hand, some cultures lay down strict rules as to the dances in which, for example. Archeological evidence for early dance includes 9, 000-year-old paintings in India at the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka and it has been proposed that before the invention of written languages, dance was an important part of the oral and performance methods of passing stories down from generation to generation. The use of dance in trance states and healing rituals is thought to have been another early factor in the social development of dance. References to dance can be found in very early recorded history, Greek dance is referred to by Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, the Bible and Talmud refer to many events related to dance, and contain over 30 different dance terms. In Chinese pottery as early as the Neolithic period, groups of people are depicted dancing in a line holding hands, Dance is further described in the Lüshi Chunqiu. Primitive dance in ancient China was associated with sorcery and shamanic rituals, during the first millennium BCE in India, many texts were composed which attempted to codify aspects of daily life. Bharata Munis Natyashastra is one of the earlier texts and it mainly deals with drama, in which dance plays an important part in Indian culture. It categorizes dance into four types - secular, ritual, abstract, the text elaborates various hand-gestures and classifies movements of the various limbs, steps and so on. A strong continuous tradition of dance has since continued in India, through to modern times, where it continues to play a role in culture, ritual, and, notably, the Bollywood entertainment industry. Many other contemporary dance forms can likewise be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, Dance is generally, though not exclusively, performed with the accompaniment of music and may or may not be performed in time to such music. Some dance may provide its own audible accompaniment in place of music, many early forms of music and dance were created for each other and are frequently performed together

Dance
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Modern dance
Dance
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Members of American jazz dance company Giordano Dance Chicago perform a formal group routine in a concert dance setting
Dance
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Greek bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer, 3rd-2nd century BC, Alexandria, Egypt.
Dance
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Ugandan youth dance at a cultural celebration of peace

26.
Magic (illusion)
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Magic is one of the oldest performing arts in the world in which audiences are entertained by staged tricks or illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means. These feats are called magic tricks, effects, or illusions, the term magic etymologically derives from the Greek word mageia. In ancient times, Greeks and Persians had been at war for centuries, ritual acts of Persian priests came to be known as mageia, and then magika—which eventually came to mean any foreign, unorthodox, or illegitimate ritual practice. The first book containing explanations of magic tricks appeared in 1584, during the 17th century, many similar books were published that described magic tricks. Until the 18th century, magic shows were a source of entertainment at fairs. A founding figure of modern entertainment magic was Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, John Henry Anderson was pioneering the same transition in London in the 1840s. Towards the end of the 19th century, large magic shows permanently staged at big theatre venues became the norm, as a form of entertainment, magic easily moved from theatrical venues to television magic specials. Performances that modern observers would recognize as conjuring have been practiced throughout history, for many recorded centuries, magicians were associated with the devil and the occult. During the 19th and 20th centuries, many stage magicians even capitalized on this notion in their advertisements. The same level of ingenuity that was used to produce famous ancient deceptions such as the Trojan Horse would also have used for entertainment. They were also used by the practitioners of various religions and cults from ancient times onwards to frighten uneducated people into obedience or turn them into adherents, however, the profession of the illusionist gained strength only in the 18th century, and has enjoyed several popular vogues since. Opinions vary among magicians on how to categorize a given effect, Magicians may pull a rabbit from an empty hat, make something seem to disappear, or transform a red silk handkerchief into a green silk handkerchief. Magicians may also destroy something, like cutting a head off, other illusions include making something appear to defy gravity, making a solid object appear to pass through another object, or appearing to predict the choice of a spectator. Many magical routines use combinations of effects, one of the earliest books on the subject is Gantzionys work of 1489, Natural and Unnatural Magic, which describes and explains old-time tricks. Among the tricks discussed were sleight-of-hand manipulations with rope, paper, at the time, fear and belief in witchcraft was widespread and the book tried to demonstrate that these fears were misplaced. All obtainable copies were burned on the accession of James I in 1603 and it began to reappear in print in 1651. In the early 18th century, as belief in witchcraft was waning, a notable figure in this transition was the English showman, Isaac Fawkes, who began to promote his act in advertisements from the 1720s – he even claimed to have performed for King George II. He throws up a Pack of Cards, and causes them to be living birds flying about the room and he causes living Beasts, Birds, and other Creatures to appear upon the Table

Magic (illusion)
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The Conjurer, 1475-1480, by Hieronymus Bosch or his workshop. Notice how the man in the back row steals another man's purse while applying misdirection by looking at the sky. The artist even misdirects us from the thief by drawing us to the magician.
Magic (illusion)
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An early copy of The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), one of the earliest books on magic tricks, written by Reginald Scot
Magic (illusion)
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Advertisement for Isaac Fawkes ' show from 1724 in which he boasts of the success of his performances for the King and Prince George
Magic (illusion)
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Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, pioneer of modern magical entertainment

27.
Mime artist
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A mime or mime artist is a person who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as a mummer, miming is to be distinguished from silent comedy, in which the artist is a seamless character in a film or sketch. The performance of mime originates at its earliest in Ancient Greece, in Medieval Europe, early forms of mime such as mummer plays and later dumbshows evolved. In early nineteenth century Paris, Jean-Gaspard Deburau solidified the many attributes that we have come to know in modern times—the silent figure in whiteface, Jacques Copeau, strongly influenced by Commedia dellarte and Japanese Noh theatre, used masks in the training of his actors. Jacques Lecoq contributed significantly to the development of mime and physical theatre with his training methods, however, the twentieth century also brought a new medium into widespread usage, the motion picture. The restrictions of early motion picture technology meant that stories had to be told with minimal dialogue and this often demanded a highly stylized form of physical acting largely derived from the stage. Thus, mime played an important role in films prior to advent of talkies, the mimetic style of film acting was used to great effect in German Expressionist film. Indeed, Chaplin may be the best-documented mime in history, tati, like Chaplin before him, would mime out the movements of every single character in his films and ask his actors to repeat them. Mime has been performed on stage, with Marcel Marceau and his character Bip being the most famous, Mime is also a popular art form in street theatre and busking. Traditionally, these sorts of performances involve the actor/actress wearing tight black, however, contemporary mimes often perform without whiteface. Similarly, while traditional mimes have been silent, contemporary mimes, while refraining from speaking. Mime acts are often comical, but some can be very serious, canadian author Michael Jacots first novel, The Last Butterfly, tells the story of a mime artist in Nazi-occupied Europe who is forced by his oppressors to perform for a team of Red Cross observers. Nobel laureate Heinrich Bölls The Clown relates the downfall of a mime artist, Hans Schneir, jacob Appels Pushcart short-listed story, Coulrophobia, depicts the tragedy of a landlord whose marriage slowly collapses after he rents a spare apartment to an intrusive mime artist. The first recorded mime was Telestēs in the play Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus, tragic mime was developed by Puladēs of Kilikia, comic mime was developed by Bathullos of Alexandria. The Roman emperor Trajan banished mime artists, Caligula favored them, nero himself acted as a mime. Recitation, music, and even percussive footwork sometimes accompany the performance, the Natya Shastra, an ancient treatise on theatre by Bharata Muni, mentions silent performance, or mukabhinaya. In Kathakali, stories from Indian epics are told with facial expressions, hand signals, performances are accompanied by songs narrating the story while the actors act out the scene, followed by actor detailing without background support of narrative song. Butoh, though referred to as a dance form, has been adopted by various theatre practitioners as well

28.
Music
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Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. The common elements of music are pitch, rhythm, dynamics, different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. The word derives from Greek μουσική, Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as the harmony of the spheres and it is music to my ears point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, There is no noise, the creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. There are many types of music, including music, traditional music, art music, music written for religious ceremonies. For example, it can be hard to draw the line between some early 1980s hard rock and heavy metal, within the arts, music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art or as an auditory art. People may make music as a hobby, like a teen playing cello in a youth orchestra, the word derives from Greek μουσική. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the music is derived from mid-13c. Musike, from Old French musique and directly from Latin musica the art of music and this is derived from the. Greek mousike of the Muses, from fem. of mousikos pertaining to the Muses, from Mousa Muse. In classical Greece, any art in which the Muses presided, Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. With the advent of recording, records of popular songs. Some music lovers create mix tapes of their songs, which serve as a self-portrait. An environment consisting solely of what is most ardently loved, amateur musicians can compose or perform music for their own pleasure, and derive their income elsewhere. Professional musicians sometimes work as freelancers or session musicians, seeking contracts and engagements in a variety of settings, There are often many links between amateur and professional musicians. Beginning amateur musicians take lessons with professional musicians, in community settings, advanced amateur musicians perform with professional musicians in a variety of ensembles such as community concert bands and community orchestras. However, there are many cases where a live performance in front of an audience is also recorded and distributed. Live concert recordings are popular in classical music and in popular music forms such as rock, where illegally taped live concerts are prized by music lovers

Music
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A painting on an Ancient Greek vase depicts a music lesson (c. 510 BC).
Music
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Jean-Gabriel Ferlan performing at a 2008 concert at the collège-lycée Saint-François Xavier
Music
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The composer Michel Richard Delalande, pen in hand.
Music
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Funk places most of its emphasis on rhythm and groove, with entire songs based around a vamp on a single chord. Pictured are the influential funk musicians George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic in 2006.

29.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below

30.
Puppetry
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Such a performance is also known as a puppet play. The puppeteer uses movements of her hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to move the body, head, limbs, and in some cases the mouth and eyes of the puppet. The puppeteer often speaks in the voice of the character of the puppet, the actions, gestures and spoken parts acted out by the puppets are typically used in storytelling. There are many different varieties of puppets, and they are made of a range of materials, depending on their form. They can be complex or very simple in their construction. A hand puppet is controlled by one hand which occupies the interior of the puppet, a live-hand puppet is similar to a hand puppet but is larger and requires two puppeteers for each puppet. Marionettes are suspended and controlled by a number of strings, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a bar held from above by the puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which was first recorded in the 5th century BC in Ancient Greece. Some forms of puppetry may have originated as long ago as 3000 years BC, Puppetry takes many forms, but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects to tell a story. Puppetry is used in almost all human societies both as entertainment – in performance – and ceremonially in rituals and celebrations such as carnivals, Puppetry is a very ancient art form, thought to have originated about 3000 years ago. Puppets have been used since the earliest times to animate and communicate the ideas, some historians claim that they pre-date actors in theatre. There is evidence that they were used in Egypt as early as 2000 BC when string-operated figures of wood were manipulated to perform the action of kneading bread, wire controlled, articulated puppets made of clay and ivory have also been found in Egyptian tombs. Hieroglyphs also describe walking statues being used in Ancient Egyptian religious dramas, Puppetry was practiced in Ancient Greece and the oldest written records of puppetry can be found in the works of Herodotus and Xenophon, dating from the 5th century BC. Sub-Saharan Africa may have inherited some of the traditions of Ancient Egypt. Certainly, secret societies in many African ethnic groups still use puppets in ritual dramas as well as in their healing and hunting ceremonies. Today, puppetry continues as a form, often within a ceremonial context, and as part of a wide range of folk forms including dance, storytelling. There is slight evidence for puppetry in the Indus Valley Civilization, archaeologists have unearthed one terracotta doll with a detachable head capable of manipulation by a string dating to 2500 BC. Another figure is a monkey which could be manipulated up and down a stick

31.
Public speaking
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Public speaking is the process or act of performing a speech to a live audience. This type of speech is deliberately structured with three general purposes, to inform, to persuade and to entertain, Public speaking is commonly understood as formal, face-to-face speaking of a single person to a group of listeners. It is closely related to presenting, but presenting is more associated with commercial activity. There are 1 million basic elements of public speaking that are described in Lasswells model of communication, in short, the speaker should be answering the question who says what in which channel to whom with what effect. Public speaking can serve the purpose of transmitting information, telling a story, Public speaking can also take the form of a discourse community, in which the audience and speaker use discourse to achieve a common goal. Public speaking for business and commercial events is often done by professionals and these speakers can be contracted independently, through representation by a speakers bureau, or by other means. Public speaking plays a role in the professional world, in fact. Although there is evidence of public speech training in ancient Egypt and this work elaborated on principles drawn from the practices and experiences of ancient Greek orators. Aristotle was one of the first recorded teachers of oratory to use definitive rules and his emphasis on oratory lead to oration becoming an essential part of a liberal arts education during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The classical antiquity works written by the ancient Greeks capture the ways they taught, in classical Greece and Rome, rhetoric was the main component of composition and speech delivery, both of which were critical skills for citizens to be able to use in public and private life. In ancient Greece, citizens spoke on their own rather than having professionals, like modern lawyers. Any citizen who wished to succeed in court, in politics or in life had to learn techniques of public speaking. Rhetorical tools were first taught by a group of teachers called Sophists who are notable for teaching paying students how to speak effectively using the methods they developed. Separately from the Sophists, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all developed their own theories of public speaking, Plato and Aristotle taught these principles in schools that they founded, The Academy and The Lyceum, respectively. Although Greece eventually lost political sovereignty, the Greek culture of training in speaking was adopted almost identically by the Romans. In the political rise of the Roman Republic, Roman orators copied and modified the ancient Greek techniques of public speaking, instruction in rhetoric developed into a full curriculum, including instruction in grammar, preliminary exercises, and preparation of public speeches in both forensic and deliberative genres. The Latin style of rhetoric was heavily influenced by Cicero and involved a strong emphasis on an education in all areas of humanistic study in the liberal arts. Other areas of study included the use of wit and humor, the appeal to the emotions

32.
Theatre
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The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence, the specific place of the performance is also named by the word theatre as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον, itself from θεάομαι. Modern theatre, broadly defined, includes performances of plays and musical theatre, there are connections between theatre and the art forms of ballet, opera and various other forms. The city-state of Athens is where western theatre originated, participation in the city-states many festivals—and mandatory attendance at the City Dionysia as an audience member in particular—was an important part of citizenship. The Greeks also developed the concepts of dramatic criticism and theatre architecture, Actors were either amateur or at best semi-professional. The theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play, the origins of theatre in ancient Greece, according to Aristotle, the first theoretician of theatre, are to be found in the festivals that honoured Dionysus. The performances were given in semi-circular auditoria cut into hillsides, capable of seating 10, the stage consisted of a dancing floor, dressing room and scene-building area. Since the words were the most important part, good acoustics, the actors wore masks appropriate to the characters they represented, and each might play several parts. Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important part of the culture of the city-state. Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BCE, it flowered during the 5th century BCE, no tragedies from the 6th century BCE and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in during the 5th century BCE have survived. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the origins of tragedy remain obscure, though by the 5th century BCE it was institution alised in competitions held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysus. As contestants in the City Dionysias competition playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays, the performance of tragedies at the City Dionysia may have begun as early as 534 BCE, official records begin from 501 BCE, when the satyr play was introduced. More than 130 years later, the philosopher Aristotle analysed 5th-century Athenian tragedy in the oldest surviving work of dramatic theory—his Poetics, Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy. Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the surviving plays of Aristophanes. New Comedy is known primarily from the papyrus fragments of Menander. Aristotle defined comedy as a representation of people that involves some kind of blunder or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster. In addition to the categories of comedy and tragedy at the City Dionysia, finding its origins in rural, agricultural rituals dedicated to Dionysus, the satyr play eventually found its way to Athens in its most well-known form. Satyrs themselves were tied to the god Dionysus as his loyal companions, often engaging in drunken revelry

33.
Ventriloquism
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Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a person changes his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered dummy. The act of ventriloquism is ventriloquizing, and the ability to do so is called in English the ability to throw ones voice. Originally, ventriloquism was a religious practice, the name comes from the Latin for to speak from the stomach, i. e. venter and loqui. The noises produced by the stomach were thought to be the voices of the unliving, the ventriloquist would then interpret the sounds, as they were thought to be able to speak to the dead, as well as foretell the future. One of the earliest recorded group of prophets to utilise this technique was the Pythia, the priestess at the temple of Apollo in Delphi, who acted as the conduit for the Delphic Oracle. One of the most successful early gastromancers was Eurykles, a prophet at Athens, in the Middle Ages, it was thought to be similar to witchcraft. As Spiritualism led to stage magic and escapology, so became more of a performance art as, starting around the 19th century. Other parts of the world also have a tradition of ventriloquism for ritual or religious purposes, historically there have been adepts of this practice among the Zulu, Inuit, and Māori peoples. The shift from ventriloquism as manifestation of spiritual forces toward ventriloquism as entertainment happened in the century at the travelling funfairs. The earliest example of a ventriloquist dates back to 1753 in England, in 1757, the Austrian Baron de Mengen is known to have implemented a small doll into his performance. However, other performers were beginning to incorporate dolls or puppets into their performance, carries in his pocket, an ill-shaped doll, with a broad face, which he exhibits. As giving utterance to his own childish jargon, and Thomas Garbutt, the entertainment came of age during the era of the music hall in the United Kingdom and vaudeville in the United States. George Sutton began to incorporate a puppet act into his routine at Nottingham in the 1830s, in 1886, he was offered a professional engagement at the Palace Theatre in London and took up his stage career permanently. Fred Russells successful comedy team format was applied by the generation of ventriloquists. Bergen popularised the idea of the comedic ventriloquist, Bergen, together with his favourite figure, Charlie McCarthy, hosted a radio program that was broadcast from 1937 to 1956. It was the #1 program on the nights it aired, another ventriloquist popular in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s was Señor Wences. The art of ventriloquism was popularised by Y. K. Padhye in North India and M. M. Roy in South India, Y. K. Padhyes son Ramdas Padhye borrowed from him and made the art popular amongst the masses through his performance on television. Ramdas Padhyes son Satyajit Padhye is also a ventriloquist, similarly, Indusree a female ventriloquist from Bangalore has contributed a lot to the art

Ventriloquism
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Sadler's Wells Theatre in the early 19th century, at a time when ventriloquist acts were becoming increasingly popular.
Ventriloquism
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Ventriloquist The Great Lester with Frank Byron, Jr. on his knee, c. 1904
Ventriloquism
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Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his best-known sidekick, Charlie McCarthy, in the film Stage Door Canteen (1943)
Ventriloquism
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A ventriloquist entertaining children at the Pueblo, Colorado, Buell Children's Museum

34.
Genre
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Genre is any form or type of communication in any mode with socially-agreed upon conventions developed over time. Genres form by conventions that change over time as new genres are invented, often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. Stand alone texts, works, or pieces of communication may have individual styles, some genres may be rigid with strictly adhered to guidelines while others may be very flexible. Genre began as a classification system for ancient Greek literature. Poetry, prose, and performance each had a specific and calculated style that related to the theme of the story. Speech patterns for comedy would not be appropriate for tragedy, in later periods genres proliferated and developed in response to changes in audiences and creators. Genre became a tool to help the public make sense out of unpredictable art. Because art is often a response to a state, in that people write/paint/sing/dance about what they know about. Genre suffers from the ills of any classification system. Genre is to be reassessed and scrutinized, and to works on their unique merit. While the genre of storytelling has been relegated as lesser form of art because of the heavily borrowed nature of the conventions, proponents argue that the genius of an effective genre piece is in the variation, recombination, and evolution of the codes. The term genre is used in the history and criticism of visual art. These are distinguished from staffage, incidental figures in what is primarily a landscape or architectural painting, Genre painting may also be used as a wider term covering genre painting proper, and other specialized types of paintings such as still-life, landscapes, marine paintings and animal paintings. The concept of the hierarchy of genres was a one in artistic theory. It was strongest in France, where it was associated with the Académie française which held a role in academic art. Genres may be determined by technique, tone, content. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as adult, young adult. They also must not be confused with format, such as novel or picture book

35.
Graphic arts
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A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i. e. produced on a flat surface. Graphic art further includes calligraphy, photography, painting, typography, computer graphics and it also encompasses drawn plans and layouts for interior and architectural designs. Throughout history, technological inventions have shaped the development of graphic art, in 2500 B. C. the Egyptians used graphic symbols to communicate their thoughts in a written form known as hieroglyphics. The Egyptians wrote and illustrated narratives on rolls of papyrus to share the stories, during the Middle Ages, scribes manually copied each individual page of manuscripts to maintain their sacred teachings. The scribes would leave marked sections of the page available for artists to insert drawings, using art alongside the carefully lettered text enhanced the religious reading experience. Johannes Gutenberg invented an improved movable type mechanical device known as the press in 1450. His printing press facilitated the mass-production of text and graphic art and eventually, again during the Renaissance years, graphic art in the form of printing played a major role in the spread of classical learning in Europe. Within these manuscripts, book designers focused heavily on typeface, the invention and popularity of film and television changed graphic art through the additional aspect of motion as advertising agencies attempted to use kinetics to their advantage. The next major change in graphic arts came when the computer was invented in the twentieth century. Powerful computer software enables artists to manipulate images in a faster and simpler way than the skills of board artists prior to the 1990s. With quick calculations, computers easily recolor, scale, rotate, the scientific investigations into legibility has influenced such things as the design of street signs. New York City is in the process of changing out all of its street signs bearing all capital letters for replacement with signs bearing only upper and lower case letters and they estimate that the increased legibility will facilitate way-finding and reduce crashes and injuries significantly. One of the most common career paths for a graphic artist today is web design, with the popularity of the World Wide Web, the demand for web designers is immense. Graphic artists use their creativity with layouts, typography, and logos to market the products or services of the client’s business. In addition to creating graphical designs, graphic artists also need to understand hypertext, web programming, the responsibility for effective communication also falls under the auspices of the graphic designer. ] Crowdsourcing creative work Graphic design Printmaking

Graphic arts
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Graphic artists at work during the 1960s
Graphic arts
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Example of graphic arts created with the free tool, Paint.net.

36.
Performing art
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Performing arts are a form of art in which artists use their voices and/or their bodies, often in relation to other objects, to convey artistic expression. It is different from visual arts, which is when artists use paint/canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects, performing arts include several disciplines, each performed in front of a live audience. Artists who participate in performing arts in front of an audience are called performers, examples of these include actors, comedians, dancers, magicians, circus artists, musicians, and singers. Performing arts are supported by workers in related fields, such as songwriting, choreography. A performer who excels in acting, singing, and dancing is commonly referred to as a triple threat, well-known examples of historical triple threat artists include Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Judy Garland. Performers often adapt their appearance, such as costumes and stage makeup, stage lighting. Performing arts may include dance, music, opera, theatre and musical theatre, magic, illusion, mime, spoken word, puppetry, circus arts, performance art, recitation and public speaking. There is also a form of fine art, in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. Most performance art also involves some form of art, perhaps in the creation of props. Dance was often referred to as an art during the Modern dance era. Theatre is the branch of performing arts, concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience, using a combination of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound, any one or more of these elements is performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative style of plays. In the context of performing arts, dance generally refers to movement, typically rhythmic and to music. Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement to codified, in dance, the connection between the two concepts is stronger than in some other arts, and neither can exist without the other. Choreography is the art of making dances, and the person who practices this art is called a choreographer, music is an art form which combines pitch, rhythm, and dynamic in order to create sound. It can be performed using a variety of instruments and styles and is divided into genres, as an art form, music can occur in live or recorded formats, and can be planned or improvised. Starting in the 6th century BC, the Classical period of performing art began in Greece and these poets wrote plays which, in some cases, incorporated dance. The Hellenistic period began the use of comedy

37.
Irony
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Irony, in its broadest sense, is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what appears, on the surface, to be the case, differs radically from what is actually the case. Irony may be divided into such as verbal, dramatic. Verbal, dramatic, and situational irony are often used for emphasis in the assertion of a truth, other forms, as identified by historian Connop Thirlwall, include dialectic and practical irony. Also, Eric Partridge, in Usage and Abusage, writes that Irony consists in stating the contrary of what is meant, the use of irony may require the concept of a double audience. The term is used as a synonym for incongruous and applied to every trivial oddity in situations where there is no double audience. The American Heritage Dictionarys secondary meaning for irony, incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs and this sense, however, is not synonymous with incongruous but merely a definition of dramatic or situational irony. It is often included in definitions of irony not only that incongruity is present, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, The term irony has its roots in the Greek comic character Eiron, a clever underdog who by his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character Alazon. The Socratic irony of the Platonic dialogues derives from this comic origin. e, the word came into English as a figure of speech in the 16th century as similar to the French ironie. It derives from the Latin ironia and ultimately from the Greek εἰρωνεία eirōneía, meaning dissimulation, Romantic irony, A self-aware and self-critical form of fiction. Cosmic irony, A contrast between the absolute and the relative, the general and the individual, which Hegel expressed by the phrase, when the audience knows that the character will die before morning. It is most often used when the author causes a character to speak or act erroneously, in tragic irony, the audience knows the character is making a mistake, even as the character is making it. Verbal irony is distinguished from situational irony and dramatic irony in that it is produced intentionally by speakers, for instance, if a man exclaims, Im not upset. But reveals an upset emotional state through his voice while truly trying to claim hes not upset, but if the same speaker said the same words and intended to communicate that he was upset by claiming he was not, the utterance would be verbal irony. This distinction illustrates an important aspect of verbal irony—speakers communicate implied propositions that are contradictory to the propositions contained in the words themselves. Were left in no doubt as to whos ambitious and whos honourable, the literal truth of whats written clashes with the perceived truth of whats meant to revealing effect, which is irony in a nutshell. Ironic similes are a form of verbal irony where a speaker intends to communicate the opposite of what they mean, a fair amount of confusion has surrounded the issue of the relationship between verbal irony and sarcasm. Fowlers A Dictionary of Modern English Usage states, Sarcasm does not necessarily involve irony and irony has often no touch of sarcasm and this suggests that the two concepts are linked but may be considered separately. 2 a, a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, the psychologist Martin, in The Psychology of Humour, is quite clear that irony is where the literal meaning is opposite to the intended and sarcasm is aggressive humor that pokes fun

38.
Parody
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A parody is a work created to imitate, make fun of, or comment on an original work—its subject, author, style, or some other target—by means of satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, parody … is imitation, another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice. Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music, animation, gaming, the writer and critic John Gross observes in his Oxford Book of Parodies, that parody seems to flourish on territory somewhere between pastiche and burlesque. According to Aristotle, Hegemon of Thasos was the inventor of a kind of parody, in ancient Greek literature, a parodia was a narrative poem imitating the style and prosody of epics but treating light, satirical or mock-heroic subjects. Indeed, the components of the Greek word are παρά para beside, counter, against, Thus, the original Greek word παρῳδία parodia has sometimes been taken to mean counter-song, an imitation that is set against the original. The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, defines parody as imitation turned as to produce a ridiculous effect, because par- also has the non-antagonistic meaning of beside, there is nothing in parodia to necessitate the inclusion of a concept of ridicule. Old Comedy contained parody, even the gods could be made fun of, the Frogs portrays the hero-turned-god Heracles as a Glutton and the God of Drama Dionysus as cowardly and unintelligent. The traditional trip to the Underworld story is parodied as Dionysus dresses as Heracles to go to the Underworld, roman writers explained parody as an imitation of one poet by another for humorous effect. In French Neoclassical literature, parody was also a type of poem where one work imitates the style of another to produce a humorous effect, the Ancient Greeks created satyr plays which parodied tragic plays, often with performers dressed like satyrs. In classical music, as a term, parody refers to a reworking of one kind of composition into another. The term is sometimes applied to procedures common in the Baroque period. The musicological definition of the parody has now generally been supplanted by a more general meaning of the word. In its more contemporary usage, musical parody usually has humorous, even satirical intent, in which familiar musical ideas or lyrics are lifted into a different, often incongruous, context. Musical parodies may imitate or refer to the style of a composer or artist. For example, The Ritz Roll and Rock, a song and dance performed by Fred Astaire in the movie Silk Stockings, parodies the Rock. Conversely, while the work of Weird Al Yankovic is based on particular popular songs. The first usage of the parody in English cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is in Ben Jonson, in Every Man in His Humour in 1598, A Parodie. The next citation comes from John Dryden in 1693, who also appended an explanation, suggesting that the word was in common use, in the 20th century, parody has been heightened as the central and most representative artistic device, the catalysing agent of artistic creation and innovation

39.
Exaggeration
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Exaggeration is a representation of something in an excessive manner. exaggerating. It is the opposite of minimisation, inflated praise in the form of flattery and puffery has a similarly lengthy history. Exaggerating is also a type of deception, as well as a means of malingering – magnifying small injuries or discomforts as an excuse to avoid responsibilities, character assassination typically involves deliberate exaggeration or manipulation of facts. Cognitive behavioral therapy views magnification as unconscious, unrealistic mental processing or cognitive distortion and this is better known as making a big deal out of nothing. Whereas probability overestimation refers to exaggerating the likelihood of an event, closely related is overgeneralizing, where one takes a single negative event and see it as a never-ending pattern of defeat. Another form of exaggeration is inflation of the difficulty of achieving a goal after attaining it. Psychoanalysis considered that neurotic exaggerations were the products of displacement – overvaluations for example being used to maintain a repression elsewhere, thus a conflict over ambivalence may be resolved by means of exaggerating ones love for a person so as to keep an unconscious hatred in further check. Alarmism is excessive or exaggerated alarm about a real or imagined threat e. g. the increases in deaths from infectious disease, the alarmist person is subject to the cognitive distortion of catastrophizing – of always expecting the worst of possible futures. Some theoreticians of the comic consider exaggeration to be a comic device. It may take different forms in different genres, but all rely on the fact that the easiest way to make things laughable is to exaggerate to the point of absurdity their salient traits, catherine Tate is an example of a comedian who uses exaggeration. Catherine Tate creates characters who are so over the top as to be almost cartoon-like and her comedy is never meant to offend any viewer and is always based on satire and grotesque exaggeration. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics, slapstick is the recourse to humor involving exaggerated physical activity which exceeds the boundaries of common sense. These exaggerated depictions are found in childrens cartoons, and light film comedies aimed at younger audiences. Paradoxical laughter is an expression of humor which is unwarranted by external events. It may be uncontrollable laughter which may be recognised as inappropriate by the person involved, freud considered the compulsive laughter which so often occurs on mournful occasions the by-product of ambivalence. The boastful soldier or Miles Gloriosus has for thousands of years formed part of the Western stage, the original miles gloriosus in Plautus is a son of Jove and Venus who has killed an elephant with his fist and seven thousand men in one days fighting. In other words, he is trying to put on a good show, overacting is the exaggeration of gestures and speech when acting. It may be unintentional, particularly in the case of a bad actor, or be required for the role, for the latter, it is commonly used in comical situations or to stress the evil characteristics of a villain

Exaggeration
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Fishing stories are often associated with exaggeration. Rabelais ' Pantagruel got a sea serpent when fishing.
Exaggeration
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Charicature from 1796, parodizing the fashion of one or two feathers issuing vertically from a woman's headdress, as are also women's neo-classically influenced gown styles (rather new in England in 1796), and men's ultra-tight trousers (or "calf-clingers" in the slang of the period).
Exaggeration
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Hamlet, by William Morris Hunt.

40.
Double entendre
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A double entendre is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to be understood in two ways, having a double meaning. Typically one of the meanings is obvious, given the context whereas the other may require more thought, the innuendo may convey a message that would be socially awkward, sexually suggestive, or offensive to state directly. A double entendre may exploit puns to convey the second meaning, double entendres generally rely on multiple meanings of words, or different interpretations of the same primary meaning. They often exploit ambiguity and may be used to introduce it deliberately in a text, sometimes a homophone can be used as a pun. When three or more meanings have been constructed, this is known as a triple entendre, etc. A person who is unfamiliar with the hidden or alternative meaning of a sentence may fail to detect its innuendos, the expression comes from French double = double and entendre = to listen. However, the English formulation is a corruption of the authentic French expression à double entente, modern French uses double sens instead, the phrase double entendre has no real meaning in the modern French language. In Homers The Odyssey, when Odysseus is captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus, when Odysseus attacks the Cyclops later that night and stabs him in the eye, the Cyclops runs out of his cave, yelling to the other cyclopes that No-one has hurt me. Which leads the other cyclopes to take no action under the assumption that Polyphemus blinded himself by accident, allowing Odysseus, some of the earliest double entendres are found in the Exeter Book, or Codex exoniensis, at Exeter Cathedral in England. The book was copied around 975 AD, in addition to the various poems and stories found in the book, there are also numerous riddles. The Anglo-Saxons did not reveal the answers to the riddles, some riddles were double-entendres, such as Riddle 25 which suggests the answer a penis but has the correct answer an onion. Examples of sexual innuendo and double-entendre occur in Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales, the most famous of these may be her use of the word queynte to describe both domestic duties and genitalia. Sometimes, it is whether a double entendre was intended. For example, the character Charley Bates from Charles Dickens Oliver Twist is frequently referred to as Master Bates, the word masturbate was in use when the book was written, and Dickens often used colourful names related to the natures of the characters. The title of Damon Knights story To Serve Man is a double entendre which could mean to perform a service to humanity or to serve a human as food. An alien cookbook with the title To Serve Man is featured in the story which could imply that the aliens eat humans, the story was the basis for an episode of The Twilight Zone. At the end of the episode the line Its a cookbook, shakespeare frequently used double entendres in his plays. The title of Shakespeares play Much Ado About Nothing is a pun on the Elizabethan use of no-thing as slang for vagina

Double entendre
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Lodgings to Let, an 1814 engraving featuring a double entendre. He: "My sweet honey, I hope you are to be let with the Lodgins!" She: "No, sir, I am to be let alone ".
Double entendre
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The first page of the poem "The Wanderer" found in the Exeter Book.
Double entendre
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Flax on a distaff

41.
Internet meme
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An Internet meme is an activity, concept, catchphrase or piece of media which spreads, often as mimicry, from person to person via the Internet. Some examples include posting a photo of people lying down in public places, a meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. An Internet meme may take the form of an image, hyperlink, video, website and it may be just a word or phrase, including an intentional misspelling. These small movements tend to spread person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email. They may relate to various existing Internet cultures or subcultures, often created or spread on various websites, or by Usenet boards, fads and sensations tend to grow rapidly on the Internet, because the instant communication facilitates word-of-mouth transmission. The concept of the Internet meme was first proposed by Mike Godwin in the June 1993 issue of Wired, dawkins explained that Internet memes are thus a hijacking of the original idea, the very idea of a meme having mutated and evolved in this new direction. Further, Internet memes carry an additional property that ordinary memes do not—Internet memes leave a footprint in the media through which they propagate that renders them traceable and analyzable, Internet memes are a subset that Susan Blackmore called temes—memes which live in technological artifacts instead of the human mind. Image macros are often confused with internet memes and are often miscited as such, however, there is a key distinction between the two. Primarily this distinction lies within the subjects recognizability in internet pop-culture, in the early days of the Internet, such content was primarily spread via email or Usenet discussion communities. Messageboards and newsgroups were also popular because they allowed a simple method for people to information or memes with a diverse population of internet users in a short period. They encourage communication between people, and thus between meme sets, that do not normally come in contact, furthermore, they actively promote meme-sharing within the messageboard or newsgroup population by asking for feedback, comments, opinions, etc. This format is what gave rise to internet memes, like the Hampster Dance. Another factor in the increased meme transmission observed over the internet is its interactive nature, many phenomena are also spread via web search engines, internet forums, social networking services, social news sites, and video hosting services. Much of the Internets ability to spread information is assisted from results found through search engines, an Internet meme may stay the same or may evolve over time, by chance or through commentary, imitations, parody, or by incorporating news accounts about itself. Internet memes can evolve and spread rapidly, sometimes reaching worldwide popularity within a few days. Internet memes usually are formed from some social interaction, pop culture reference and their rapid growth and impact has caught the attention of both researchers and industry. Academically, researchers model how they evolve and predict which memes will survive, commercially, they are used in viral marketing where they are an inexpensive form of mass advertising. One empirical approach studied meme characteristics and behavior independently from the networks in which they propagated, theoretical studies on media psychology and communication have aimed to characterise and analyse the concept and representations in order to make it accessible for the academic research

42.
Latin language
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole

43.
Quintilian
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Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is referred to as Quintilian, although the alternate spellings of Quintillian and Quinctilian are occasionally seen. Quintilian was born c.35 in Calagurris in Hispania and his father, a well-educated man, sent him to Rome to study rhetoric early in the reign of Nero. While there, he cultivated a relationship with Domitius Afer, who died in 59 and it had always been the custom … for young men with ambitions in public life to fix upon some older model of their ambition … and regard him as a mentor. Quintilian evidently adopted Afer as his model and listened to him speak, Afer has been characterized as a more austere, classical, Ciceronian speaker than those common at the time of Seneca the Younger, and he may have inspired Quintilian’s love of Cicero. Sometime after Afers death, Quintilian returned to Hispania, possibly to practice law in the courts of his own province, however, in 68, he returned to Rome as part of the retinue of Emperor Galba, Neros short-lived successor. Quintilian does not appear to have been an advisor of the Emperor. After Galbas death, and during the chaotic Year of the Four Emperors which followed, among his students were Pliny the Younger, and perhaps Tacitus. The Emperor Vespasian made him a consul, the emperor in general was not especially interested in the arts, but … was interested in education as a means of creating an intelligent and responsible ruling class. This subsidy enabled Quintilian to devote time to the school. In addition, he appeared in the courts of law, arguing on behalf of clients, of his personal life, little is known. In the Institutio Oratoria, he mentions a wife who died young, Quintilian retired from teaching and pleading in 88, during the reign of Domitian. His retirement may have been prompted by his achievement of financial security, Quintilian survived several emperors, the reigns of Vespasian and Titus were relatively peaceful, but that of Domitian was reputed to be difficult. Domitian’s cruelty and paranoia may have prompted the rhetorician to distance himself quietly, the emperor does not appear to have taken offence as he made Quintilian tutor of his two grand-nephews in 90 CE. He is believed to have died sometime around 100, not having long survived Domitian, the only extant work of Quintilian is a twelve-volume textbook on rhetoric entitled Institutio Oratoria, published around AD95. An earlier text, De Causis Corruptae Eloquentiae has been lost, in addition, there are two sets of declamations, Declamationes Maiores and Declamationes Minores, which have been attributed to Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria is a textbook on the theory and practice of rhetoric by Roman rhetorician Quintilian. It was published around year 95 CE, the work deals also with the foundational education and development of the orator himself

44.
Apuleius
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Apuleius was a Latin-language prose writer, platonist philosopher and rhetorian. He was a Numidian who lived under the Roman Empire and was from Madauros and he studied Platonism in Athens, travelled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the attentions of a wealthy widow. He declaimed and then distributed a witty tour de force in his own defense before the proconsul and this is known as the Apologia. His most famous work is his bawdy picaresque novel, the Metamorphoses and it is the only Latin novel that has survived in its entirety. It relates the adventures of one Lucius, who experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into a donkey. Apuleius was born in Madauros, a colonia in Numidia on the North African coast bordering Gaetulia, as to his first name, no praenomen is given in any ancient source, late-medieval manuscripts began the tradition of calling him Lucius from the name of the hero of his novel. Details regarding his life come mostly from his speech and his work Florida. His father was a magistrate who bequeathed at his death the sum of nearly two million sesterces to his two sons. Apuleius studied with a master at Carthage and later at Athens and he subsequently went to Rome to study Latin rhetoric and, most likely, to speak in the law courts for a time before returning to his native North Africa. He also travelled extensively in Asia Minor and Egypt, studying philosophy and religion, Apuleius was an initiate in several Greco-Roman mysteries, including the Dionysian Mysteries. He was a priest of Asclepius and, according to Augustine, not long after his return home he set out upon a new journey to Alexandria. On his way there he was ill at the town of Oea and was hospitably received into the house of Sicinius Pontianus. The mother of Pontianus, Pudentilla, was a rich widow. With her sons consent – indeed encouragement – Apuleius agreed to marry her, the case was heard at Sabratha, near Tripoli, c.158 AD, before Claudius Maximus, proconsul of Africa. The accusation itself seems to have been ridiculous, and the spirited and this is known as the Apologia. Apuleius accused an extravagant personal enemy of turning his house into a brothel, of his subsequent career we know little. Judging from the works of which he was author, he must have devoted himself diligently to literature

Apuleius
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Depiction of Apuleius
Apuleius
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Frontispiece from the Bohn Library 1902 edition of The Works of Apuleius: a portrait of Apuleius flanked by Pamphile changing into an owl and the Golden Ass

45.
Greek mythology
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It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Greek mythology is explicitly embodied in a collection of narratives. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. These accounts initially were disseminated in a tradition, today the Greek myths are known primarily from ancient Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, Homers epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War, archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles, in the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an influence on the culture, arts. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes, Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. Mythical narration plays an important role in every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus and this work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from c, 180–125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection, however the Library discusses events that occurred long after his death, among the earliest literary sources are Homers two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the cycle, but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiods Works and Days, a poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama

46.
Isaac Casaubon
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Isaac Casaubon was a classical scholar and philologist, first in France and then later in England, regarded by many of his time as the most learned man in Europe. His son Méric Casaubon was also a classical scholar and he was born in Geneva to two French Huguenot refugees. The family returned to France after the Edict of Saint-Germain in 1562, and settled at Crest in Dauphiné, until he was nineteen, Isaac had no education other than that given him by his father. Arnaud was away from home for periods in the Calvinist camp. It was in a cave in the mountains of Dauphiné, after the massacre of St Bartholomew, at the age of nineteen Isaac was sent to the Academy of Geneva, where he read Greek under Franciscus Portus a Cretan. Portus died in 1581, recommending Casaubon, then only twenty-two and he remained at Geneva as professor of Greek until 1596. There he married twice, his wife being Florence Estienne. At Geneva, Casaubon lacked example, encouragement and assistance and struggled against the troops of the Catholic dukes of Savoy and he spent all the money he could spare on books, including copying classics that were not then in print. Even though Henri Estienne, Theodore de Beza, and Jacques Lect, were men of superior learning, Casaubon sought help by cultivating the acquaintance of foreign scholars, as Geneva, the metropolis of Calvinism, received a constant stream of visitors. He eventually met Henry Wotton, a poet and diplomat, who lodged with him, more importantly, he met Richard Thomson, fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and through Thomson came to the attention of Joseph Scaliger. Scaliger and Casaubon first exchanged letters in 1594 and they never met, but kept up a lengthy correspondence that shows their growing admiration, esteem and friendship. Influential French men of letters, the Protestant Jacques Bongars, the Catholic Jacques de Thou, in 1596, they succeeded, and Casaubon accepted a post at the University of Montpellier, with the titles of conseiller du roi and professeur stipendié aux langues et bonnes lettres. He stayed there for three years, with several prolonged absences. He was badly treated and poorly paid by the university authorities, Casaubon began to see the editing of Greek books as a more suitable job for him. At Geneva he had produced some notes on Diogenes Laertius, Theocritus and he debuted as an editor with a complete edition of Strabo, of which he was so ashamed afterwards that he apologized to Scaliger for it. This was followed by the text of Polyaenus, a princeps,1589, a text of Aristotle,1590. His edition of Theophrastuss Characteres, is the first example of his style of illustrative commentary, at once apposite. When he left for Montpellier he was engaged upon his magnum opus, his editing of

Isaac Casaubon
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Isaac Casaubon

47.
Laughter
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Laughter is a physical reaction in humans and some other species of primate, consisting typically of rhythmical, often audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to external or internal stimuli. Laughter can arise from activities as being tickled, or from humorous stories or thoughts. Most commonly, it is considered an expression of a number of positive emotional states, such as joy, mirth, happiness, relief. On some occasions, however, it may be caused by emotional states such as embarrassment, apology. Age, gender, education, language, and culture are all factors as to whether a person will experience laughter in a given situation. Laughter is a part of human behavior regulated by the brain, helping humans clarify their intentions in social interaction, Laughter is used as a signal for being part of a group—it signals acceptance and positive interactions with others. Laughter is sometimes seen as contagious, and the laughter of one person can itself provoke laughter from others as a positive feedback and this may account in part for the popularity of laugh tracks in situation comedy television shows. The study of humor and laughter, and its psychological and physiological effects on the body, is called gelotology. Laughter might be thought of as an expression or appearance of excitement. It may ensue from jokes, tickling, and other completely unrelated to psychological state. Laughter researcher Robert Provine said, Laughter is a mechanism everyone has, there are thousands of languages, hundreds of thousands of dialects, but everyone speaks laughter in pretty much the same way. Babies have the ability to laugh before they ever speak, children who are born blind and deaf still retain the ability to laugh. Provine argues that Laughter is primitive, an unconscious vocalization, Provine argues that it probably is genetic. They reported this even though both had been brought together by their adoptive parents, who they indicated were undemonstrative and dour. He indicates that the twins inherited some aspects of their sound and pattern, readiness to laugh. Norman Cousins developed a program incorporating megadoses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope. I made the discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect

Laughter
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Workers laughing in a clothing factory.
Laughter
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A man laughing
Laughter
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Laughter is a common response to tickling. In this case, this boy is laughing because he is being tickled.
Laughter
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Two laughing men by Hans von Aachen, circa 1574

48.
Ig Nobel Prize
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The Ig Nobel Prizes are parodies of the Nobel Prizes given out each autumn for 10 unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. They have been awarded since 1991, with the aim to honor achievements that first make people laugh. The awards can be veiled criticism or satire, but are used to point out that even absurd-sounding avenues of research can yield useful knowledge. The name is a play on the words ignoble and the Nobel Prize, the pronunciation used during the ceremony is /ˌɪɡnoʊˈbɛl/ IG-noh-BEL, not like the word ignoble. The Ig Nobels were created in 1991 by Marc Abrahams, editor and co-founder of the Annals of Improbable Research, awards were presented at that time for discoveries that cannot, or should not, be reproduced. The Ig Nobel Prizes recognize genuine achievements, with the exception of three awarded in the first year to fictitious scientists Josiah S. Carberry, Paul DeFanti. Most often, however, they draw attention to scientific articles that have some humorous or unexpected aspect. In 2010, Sir Andre Geim was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics for his work with graphene, the prizes are presented by genuine Nobel laureates, originally at a ceremony in a lecture hall at MIT, but now in Sanders Theater at Harvard University. It contains a number of running jokes, including Miss Sweetie Poo, the awards ceremony is traditionally closed with the words, If you didnt win a prize—and especially if you did—better luck next year. The ceremony is co-sponsored by the Harvard Computer Society, the Harvard–Radcliffe Science Fiction Association, throwing paper planes onto the stage is a long-standing tradition at the Ig Nobels. In past years, physics professor Roy J. Glauber swept the stage clean of the airplanes as the official Keeper of the Broom for years, Glauber could not attend the 2005 awards because he was traveling to Stockholm to claim a genuine Nobel Prize in Physics. The Parade of Ignitaries brings various supporting groups into the hall, at the 1997 ceremonies, a team of cryogenic sex researchers distributed a pamphlet titled Safe Sex at Four Kelvin. Delegates from the Museum of Bad Art are often on hand to some pieces from their collection. The ceremony is recorded and broadcast on National Public Radio and is shown live over the Internet, the recording is broadcast every year, on the Friday after U. S. Thanksgiving, on the public radio program Science Friday. In recognition of this, the audience chants the first name of the shows host. Two books have published as of 3 September 2009 with write-ups on some of the winners, The Ig Nobel Prize and The Ig Nobel Prize 2. An Ig Nobel Tour has been a part of National Science week in the United Kingdom since 2003. The tour has traveled to Australia several times, Aarhus University in Denmark in April 2009, Italy

49.
Collective unconscious
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Collective unconscious, a term coined by Carl Jung, refers to structures of the unconscious mind which are shared among beings of the same species. Jung considered the collective unconscious to underpin and surround the unconscious mind and he argued that the collective unconscious had profound influence on the lives of individuals, who lived out its symbols and clothed them in meaning through their experiences. The psychotherapeutic practice of analytical psychology revolves around examining the relationship to the collective unconscious. Critics of the collective unconscious concept have called it unscientific and fatalistic, proponents suggest that it is borne out by findings of psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology. The name collective unconscious first appeared in Jungs 1916 essay, The Structure of the Unconscious and this essay distinguishes between the personal, Freudian unconscious, filled with sexual fantasies and repressed images, and the collective unconscious encompassing the soul of humanity at large. These primordial images or archetypes, as I have called them, belong to the stock of the unconscious psyche. Together they make up that psychic stratum which has called the collective unconscious. The existence of the collective unconscious means that individual consciousness is anything, on the contrary, it is in the highest degree influenced by inherited presuppositions, quite apart from the unavoidable influences exerted upon it by the environment. The collective unconscious comprises in itself the psychic life of our ancestors right back to the earliest beginnings, on October 19,1936, Jung delivered a lecture The Concept of the Collective Unconscious to the Abernethian Society at St. Bartholomews Hospital in London. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited and it consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents. He credited Freud for developing his primal horde theory in Totem and Taboo, every human being, he wrote, however high his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche. The collective unconscious exerts overwhelming influence on the minds of individuals and these effects of course vary widely, since they involve virtually every emotion and situation. At times, the collective unconscious can terrify, but it can also heal, Jung contrasted the collective unconscious with the personal unconscious, the unique aspects of an individual study which Jung says constitute the focus of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. Psychotherapy patients, it seemed to Jung, often described fantasies and these elements appeared even in patients who were probably not exposed to the original story. For example, mythology offers many examples of the dual narrative, according to which a child has a biological mother. Therefore, argues Jung, Freudian psychoanalysis would neglect important sources for unconscious ideas and this divergence over the nature of the unconscious has been cited as a key aspect of Jungs famous split from Sigmund Freud and his school of psychoanalysis. Some commentators have rejected Jungs characterization of Freud, observing that in such as Totem. Jung himself said that Freud had discovered a collective archetype, the Oedipus complex, but that it was the first archetype Freud discovered, Jung also distinguished the collective unconscious and collective consciousness, between which lay an almost unbridgeable gulf over which the subject finds himself suspended